The responsibility to prevent conflicts under R2P: The Nigeria–Bakassi situation

Abstract

Nigeria and Cameroon, two neighbouring countries in West Africa, have been involved in border disputes and conflicts over the ownership and administration of the resource-rich Bakassi Peninsula. Following several failed diplomatic attempts to resolve the ownership of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula, which was under Nigerian administration until the early 1980s, Cameroon approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine the legal ownership of the peninsula. The ICJ decided that Cameroon owns the resource-rich peninsula and directed Nigeria to hand over the territory to Cameroon. However, the judgment did not end the hostilities between the two countries because Nigeria refused to give up the peninsula and maintained a visible military presence in the region, ostensibly to protect its citizens from the Cameroonian authorities. In 2006, Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, successfully brokered diplomatic negotiations between the two countries, which produced the Greentree Agreement (GTA) signed by both countries at Greentree, New York, on 12 June 2006. The terms of the GTA laid down procedures for a peaceful handover of the territory from Nigeria to Cameroon.