The Changing Phases of Nigeria-Cameroon Southern Boundary, 1884 – 2002

Abstract

From the Atlantic terminus up to Gamana River, the Nigeria – Cameroon southern boundary had been a major source of conflict between the German and British colonialists and later, the successor independent states. More than anywhere else in Africa, several Anglo – German treaties were signed by the colonialists and several diplomatic meetings were held by successor - states on the boundary. After the dispossession of German African territories in 1918 following her defeat in the First World War, German Kamerun was repartition between the British and the French colonialists. Yet, the Atlantic terminus remained undemarcated. The vagueness of the southern end implied a no clear definition of the coastal boundary between both successor–states. With the intervention of the International Court of Justice, it was ruled in 2002 among other things that the Anglo–German Treaty of 1913 was the defining boundary between the two countries and that Bakassi Peninsula rightfully belonged to Cameroon.