copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2016-04-30): On the 10th of October 2002 the International Court of Justice delivered the Bakassi decision, which, amongst other things, excised the resource rich land and maritime territory of Bakassi from Nigeria and transferred its legal title to Cameroon. These two countries under the auspices of the United Nations established the mechanism of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission to honour and implement their obligations under the ICJ decision. Over a decade after the ICJ decision this volume brings together academics and practitioners to assess the impact of this decision and the challenges and issues that have been raised in the course of its implementation. Hailed by some as a model of preventive diplomacy and a blueprint for the future, this timely assessment illuminates the difficulties in imposing such controversial decisions and considers whether this type of Mixed Commission is an adequate mechanism for implementing them.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-09-15): Following a lengthy period of intense disagreement and occasional clashes over ownership of Bakassi, a peninsula on the Gulf of Guinea lying between the Cross River estuary in the west, and the Rio del Ray estuary on the east, in 2002, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in Cameroon’s favour over the disputed territory. [...] However, despite the formal handover of Bakassi to Cameroon in 2006, the territory of Bakassi is still reflected as part of the 774 local governments in Nigeria as contained in the First Schedule, Part I of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. [...] According to Ita-Giwa, "We are not asking Nigeria to revisit the issue of Bakassi in The Hague because it would be illegal and exercise in futility. All we are asking is that the displaced people of Bakassi be resettled in Dayspring where they can carry on with their way of life which is fishing".
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-10-03): Prof. Walter Ofonagoro…Bakassi is in Nigeria [...] Consequently, Nigeria is the one with the title to Bakassi. Therefore, under the principle of the inviolability of inherited Colonial boundaries declared by the OAU Resolution AHG/Res. 16 (1) of the Organization of African Unity, in Cairo, Egypt, on July 21, 1964, the Uti Possidetis, Ubi Possidetis, so far as the Rio Del Rey boundary is concerned, belongs to Nigeria. Definition of the "Sea" as the Southern Border of Eastern Region of Nigeria, in the Constitution of the Federation of Nigeria, 1960; and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1963. [...] That was why the Eastern Region, and after 1967, its successor littoral states of south-eastern Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa, have continued to enjoy off-shore oil derivation revenues from the Federal Government. This constitutional confirmation, makes Bakassi part of the territory of the Eastern Region, and part of the territory of Cross River State, because the east end boundary of Eastern Nigeria at the Rio del Rey is right on the Bakassi Peninsula.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-09-18): LAGOS — Fresh facts have emerged, showing that the disputed Bakassi peninsula which the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ceded to Cameroon, actually belongs to Nigeria. Vanguard gathered that the jurists at ICJ might have been misled by the legal teams of Cameroon and Nigeria, who did not show vital information that clearly placed Bakassi as a territory within the geographical, political and administrative jurisdiction and control of Nigeria, contrary to the October 10, 2002, verdict which awarded the sovereignty of the peninsula to Cameroon. [...] The British were fully in control of the Calabar Sea Port. The Germans went East of Akwa Yafe River, which took them to the Rio Del Rey estuary to the sea. This ensured that the Bakassi Peninsula was on the West, which put the Peninsula on the Nigerian territory. The predominant population on the Peninsula then were the Efiks and Efuts, who were of Efik kingdom which stretched up to Khumba, Victoria and Bamenda.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-08-31): Adigbuo, E. R. (2019). Role conflicts in foreign policy: Nigeria’s dilemma over Bakassi Peninsula. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 37(4), 404–420. [...] Ariye, E. (2015). Nigeria, Cameroon and the Bakassi Territorial Dispute Settlement: The Triumph of Bilateralism. International Affairs and Global Strategy, 38. ISSN 2224-574X (Paper), ISSN 2224–8951 (Online). [...] Eke, U. E., & Eke, O. A. (2007). The truth about Bakassi Peninsula and the dynamics of Nigeria’s external relations. Ebonyi State, Nigeria: Willyrose and Appleseed Pub. Coy.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): Obasanjo was also faced with resolving an ongoing border dispute with neighbouring Cameroon that included the question of which country had rights to the Bakassi Peninsula, an oil-rich area to which both countries had strong cultural ties. Under the terms of a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling, the region was awarded to Cameroon, and Obasanjo was criticized by the international community when Nigeria did not immediately comply by withdrawing its troops from the area in the subsequent years. He also received much domestic criticism for contemplating withdrawal from the peninsula by those who questioned the fate of the large number of Nigerians living in the region and cited the long-standing cultural ties between the Bakassi Peninsula and Nigeria. Nevertheless, Obasanjo eventually honoured the terms of the ruling in 2006 when Nigeria relinquished its claim to the peninsula and withdrew its forces. The process of transferring the peninsula to Cameroon was not without its problems, including the ongoing issue of resettling Nigerians displaced by the transfer and the dissatisfaction of those who remained but were now under Cameroonian rule. In November 2007 Nigeria’s Senate voted to void the agreement that had ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. However, this action did not affect the actual status of the peninsula, and a ceremony held on August 14, 2008, marked the completion of the peninsula’s transfer from Nigeria to Cameroon.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-02): The Bakassi conflict is an ongoing armed dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula of Cameroon. Originally subject to a border conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria, Bakassi later became affected by insurgencies waged by local separatists against Cameroonian government forces. [...] On 12 June 2006, Nigeria and Cameroon signed the Greentree Agreement, allowing Nigeria to keep its civil administration in Bakassi for another two years. The Nigerian Army agreed to withdraw at least 3,000 soldiers[5] within 60 days.[1] It also agreed to give back a part to Cameroon.[31] Following the agreement, a Bakassian delegation threatened to declare independence if the handover was carried out.[29] On 2 July 2006 the Bakassi Movement for Self-Determination (BAMOSD) announced that it would join the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to secede from Cameroon and on the 9th, they carried out the threat. They and the Southern Cameroons People's Organisation (SCAPO) declared the independence of the "Democratic Republic of Bakassi".[32] The separatists were supported by Biafran separatist rebels.[33] Nigeria's Senate claimed in November 2007 that ceding Bakassi was illegal, but this action by the senate had no effect.[28]
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2014-08-29): Cameroon, Nigeria and the Bakassi conflict: building blocks for a Non-Democratic Peace Theory [...] The Democratic Peace Theory, which argues in part that democracies hardly go to war against each other, has made a lasting impression in the field of war and peace studies. While the theory has been mostly applied to the ‘peace zones’ of the Global North (made up of stable democracies and where war is ‘unthinkable’), the ‘conflict zones’ of the Global South (a significant part of which Africa is made of) has been left in relative theoretical neglect, as it relates to peaceful interstate relations. The Nigeria–Cameroon crisis over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula provides a sensitive case study in the Global South for laying a foundation for a Non-Democratic Peace Theory (NDPT). Why did the Nigeria–Cameroon conflict over the strategic oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula not degenerate into a sustained full-scale war given the non-democratic foundations of the participant countries? This paper makes an attempt at laying the building blocks for an NDPT for Africa. Although Cameroon and Nigeria could not at the latent point of the conflict be considered democracies, they acted in a manner that reflected the character of global democracies. [...] Sama, Molem Christopher and Debora Johnson-Ross (2006) ‘Reclaiming the Bakassi Kingdom: The Anglophone Cameroon–Nigeria Border’, Afrika Zamani 13&14 (1): 103–22.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-05-13): On 10 October 2002, the International Court of Justice at The Hague delivered judgement in the contentious case between Cameroon and Nigeria (Equatorial Guinea intervening) to the effect, inter alia, that ‘sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula lies with the Republic of Cameroon’. The Court further decided that ‘the Federal Republic of Nigeria is under an obligation expeditiously and without condition to withdraw its administration and its military and police forces from the territories which fall within the sovereignty of the Republic of Cameroon’. On the face of it, this was simply an interstate territorial dispute involving two African States. This article argues, however, that in the circumstances of the case, colonialism was on trial. Properly analysed, and within the broad framework of colonial responsibility, at the heart of the case is British responsibility to the people of Bakassi and, by extension, Nigeria. Regrettably, the majority of the Court evaded this central issue and chose, instead, to engage in a spurious analysis whose end result was the transformation of a regime engendered by a treaty that, by its very provisions, established a protectorate into a colony or a so-called colonial protectorate! In the circumstances, the article underscores the imperative of critical legal scholarship that interrogates the colonial enterprise, with a view to purging international law of its colonial vestiges. [...] Dakas, D.C.J. (2018). Interrogating Colonialism: Bakassi, the Colonial Question and the Imperative of Exorcising the Ghost of Eurocentric International Law.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (1995-03-16): On 29 March 1994, Cameroon filed in the Registry of the Court an Application instituting proceedings against Nigeria with respect to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula, and requesting the Court to determine the course of the maritime frontier between the two States in so far as that frontier had not been established in 1975. As a basis for the jurisdiction of the Court, Cameroon referred to the declarations made by the two States under Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court, by which they accepted that jurisdiction as compulsory. In its Application, Cameroon referred to "an aggression by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose troops are occupying several Cameroonian localities on the Bakassi Peninsula", and asked the Court, inter alia, to adjudge and declare that sovereignty over the Peninsula of Bakassi was Cameroonian, by virtue of international law, and that Nigeria had violated and was violating the fundamental principle of respect for frontiers inherited from colonization (uti possidetis juris), as well as other rules of conventional and customary international law, and that Nigeria’s international responsibility was involved.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2014-08-30): For close to fifty years, the territorial dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon continued over the region along their border known as the Bakassi peninsula. The dispute almost led to war in the mid-1990s, was settled by the International Court of Justice in 2002, and resulted in hand-off of the territory by Nigeria to Cameroon in 2008. Content analysis of newspapers from Nigeria and Cameroon for the year 2010 revealed underlying identity-based needs that had been left largely unaddressed. Analysis of Nigerian newspapers showed a prevalent discussion of unfulfilled identity needs and an unresolved identity-conflict potential. Analysis of Cameroonian newspapers revealed the fulfilling of a new identity as the Bakassi region was proactively populated with Cameroonian citizens, culture, and connectivity to the rest of the country. The Bakassi dispute resolution was heralded as a success by state leadership, but it was not perceived in the same way by the general population as evidenced in the content analysis. Public opinions expressed in the media were less reflective of a cooperative result and more reflective of a zero-sum negotiation result with a clear winner and a clear loser. "Interests and Identities in Peace Negotiations: Nigeria, Cameroon, and the Bakassi Peninsula,"
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-07-14): Nigeria's parliament is investigating reports that 97 fishermen have been killed in the Bakassi peninsula, which the country ceded to Cameroon. [...] Cameroon took control of oil-rich Bakassi in 2008 after an International Court of Justice ruling, ending years of border skirmishes. [...] • Cameroon based its claim of sovereignty on maps dating back to the colonial era • It was administered by Nigeria from independence in 1960 until 2008 • Nigeria and Cameroon nearly went to war over Bakassi in 1981 and bloody clashes claimed 34 lives in 1994 • In 2002, the International Court of Justice ruled in Cameroon's favour • 14 August 2006: Nigerian troops withdrew but the area remained under Nigerian administration • 14 August 2008: Nigeria fully ceded the territory to Cameroon • 15 August 2013: Cameroon took over full sovereignty and a tax-free exemption for residents came to an end
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2008-08-14): But around 90 per cent of the population in the Bakassi peninsula, estimated at 200,000 to 300,000, are thought to be Nigerian fishermen and their families. [...] Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, a senator for Cross Rivers South state, to which Bakassi used to be a part, told Al Jazeera that the transfer could lead to conflict in the future. [...] Cameroon and Nigeria then signed an accord, known as the Green Tree agreement, in New York in 2006 during US-facilitated mediation talks, paving the way for Nigeria’s withdrawal from Bakassi.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-01-22): Fact Sheet: Bakassi IDP Camp Maiduguri, Borno State, North-east Nigeria (Updated January 2020) Overview • Bakasi IDP camp is one of the oldest camps in Miaduguri. It is located in Bakassi Housing estate, originally built as part of the Borno State housing project.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (1999-09-25): Human Rights Watch and CLEEN tried to seek opinions from a number of journalists in the south-eastern states about the actions of the Bakassi Boys and attitudes towards them. Several of them reacted defensively to our inquiries. Reflecting, to some extent, the contradictory attitudes of the general public, their reactions could be interpreted as a mixture of genuine support for the Bakassi Boys, and fear of expressing disapproval of what they might privately consider to be abusive about their behaviour. Some claimed not to have any information about the specific activities of the Bakassi Boys, even though they had personally reported on individual cases for their newspapers, while others contented themselves with the standard pro-Bakassi Boys arguments. A typical response was that of a journalist in Onitsha who told us: "The Bakassi have been a good thing. Armed robbery was very bad and violent. Now people feel safe. There is no trust in the police [...] People want the Bakassi."44 4 This section does not attempt to provide a comprehensive history of vigilantism in Nigeria.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-06-13): In September 2002, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Government of France sponsored talks in Paris, where both parties formally committed to respecting the judgement of the ICJ.[5] This round of talks also resulted in the UN forming a joint Cameroonian-Nigerian commission, which resolved several disputes (such as that concerning the territory around Lake Chad) but failed to address Bakassi.[6] In its judgement the following month, the ICJ granted sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon and ordered the removal of all Nigerian personnel from the area.[7] Continued Nigerian recalcitrance to withdraw led to another flare up of tensions in June 2005, leading to yet another round of negotiations hosted by the UN.[8] These talks culminated in June 2006 with the Greentree Agreement and the withdrawal of Nigerian troops from the area two months later.[9] Thanks to the efforts of the OAU, UN, and ICJ, an interstate conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria was avoided.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-05-16): The Bakassi peninsula lies in the Gulf of Guinea and is rich in fish, oil and gas reserves. Around 90 percent of the peninsula’s estimated 300,000 population are Nigerians who were mostly in the fishing industry. Nigerians from states like Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Abia and Delta, also live there. [...] It was at this ceremony that Nigeria officially transferred authority over the territory to Cameroon in agreement with a 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which upheld Cameroon’s claims to Bakassi peninsula. [...] The new housing units sit inside the Bakassi local council in Cross River State, near Akpabuyo. It is entirely different from the formerly disputed Bakassi peninsula which lies 30km away.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-07-06): The population of Bakassi is in the middle of a historic resettlement. Following a protracted border conflict dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria, both governments began a handing-over of the peninsula to Cameroon in 2006. Until then, the settlers of Bakassi were part of the larger Efik and Oron ethnic groups of Nigeria and have no cultural affinity with any ethnic group in Ambazonia.To repopulate Bakassi, a Bakassi Peninsula Development Program (BADEP) was launched which will help populate the eponymous territory once claimed by Nigeria. [...] Located in the South Western region, the Bakassi Peninsula is mostly inhabitated by Nigerians. However, the government of Cameroon initiated there a programme to establish palm oil farms owned by State-run agro-industrial firm, Pamol Plantations Plc.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2007-12-02): According to U.N. envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who until recently had headed the Mixed Commission as the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Representative at the U.N. Office for West Africa, the issue of the identity of the people living in the region should be separate from the determination of sovereignty over the region. He stated, "[t]he identity of a people is not always the same as the identity of the territory they live on. There are more than three million Nigerians living in various parts of Cameroon. Only a small percentage of them live in Bakassi. Whether they are living in Bakassi or elsewhere in Cameroon that territory is not Nigeria." (Cameroon-Nigeria: Settling Bakassi – Interview with UN Envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, supra.)
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-04-02): The peninsula of Bakassi has long been the subject of a territorial dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria. Now it shows what can happen to people when control over the territory where they live shifts from one country to another. Tens of Thousands of people, possibly more, who inhabited (and some of whom still inhabit) the peninsula have lost access to nationality or citizenship rights, and now live in a legal limbo. In October 2002, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague decided that Bakassi was part of Cameroon, not Nigeria. Until then, Bakassi had been part of Nigeria and was one of the 774 units of local government in the country. The United Nations subsequently mediated negotiations between Nigeria and Cameroon to ensure effective implementation of the ICJ decision. [...] The human consequences of these omissions were obvious on a recent visit into Bakassi. In 2007, Bakassi reportedly had an estimated population of about 300,000. Today, most of its people have been "re-located" into the neighboring territory of Nigeria’s Cross-River State, a mere 20 minute’s boat ride away. In elections for the office of Governor of Cross-River State in March 2012, the former inhabitants of Bakassi (now displaced into the Nigerian State to which they always belonged) were unable to vote: they were no longer on the voters' register, their settlements no longer existed in Nigeria, and they had no means of proving their entitlement to vote. On voting day on 25 February, they took to the streets to protest over their apparent statelessness.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2006-06-12): NIGERIA, CAMEROON SIGN AGREEMENT ENDING DECADES-OLD BORDER DISPUTE; SETS PROCEDURES FOR NIGERIAN WITHDRAWAL FROM BAKASSI PENINSULA [...] The Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon today signed an Agreement settling a decades-old, sometimes violent, border dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula, following intensive mediation over the weekend by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. [...] The historic Agreement came some 12 years after Cameroon asked the International Court of Justice to rule on a dispute "relat[ing] essentially to the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula", which it claimed was in part under military occupation by Nigeria, and to determine the maritime boundary between the countries. Later, in 1994, Cameroon’s Government extended the case to a further dispute, relating to "the question of sovereignty over a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad", which it claimed was also occupied by Nigeria.
Claim: Bakassi is a territory of Nigeria (Bakassi, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2013-08-15): Security Council praises Cameroon, Nigeria for Bakassi Peninsula transition [...] In June 2006, the two countries signed the UN-backed Greentree Agreement setting the terms and timeframe for the implementation of the 2002 ruling of the ICJ, which transferred the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria to Cameroon. Nigeria formally ceded the territory in 2008, and since then a transitional phase has been in place to give full sovereignty of the territory to Cameroon.