Bakassi Peninsula

Bakassi Peninsula, peninsula in western Cameroon, which juts into the Gulf of Guinea. Adjacent to the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, the Bakassi Peninsula was the subject of a long-standing diplomatic dispute between the two West African nations until 2002. The swampy peninsula, cut by a series of channels, covers an area of 50 sq km (20 sq mi) and has large reserves of petroleum. In 1884 Britain signed a treaty of protection with indigenous rulers that gave Britain control over the peninsula. It was subsequently included in the German colony of Kamerun as a result of a 1913 agreement between Germany and Britain. From the end of World War I (1914-1918) to the independence of Cameroon in 1960 the Bakassi Peninsula and present-day southwestern Cameroon were administered by Britain as part of Nigeria. In 1991 the Nigerian government claimed that the peninsula was still legally part of Nigeria. Cameroon countered with an agreement signed during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) by Nigerian military ruler Yakubu Gowon, which ceded the territory to Cameroon. Nigeria disputed the agreement and in early 1994 invaded the Bakassi Peninsula. Fighting gave way to diplomacy by the end of the year, but armed clashes resumed in 1996. Cameroon requested that the matter be settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered both countries to cease hostilities. In October 2002 the ICJ ruled that the peninsula rightly belonged to Cameroon on the basis of the 1913 agreement, and ordered Nigerian forces to leave the area. Nigeria did not formally hand over the area until August 2008. As part of the settlement, the two nations agreed to jointly explore for oil deposits off the peninsula.