Bakassi transfer completed

In August 2008, Nigeria formally completed the handover of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, ending decades of territorial dispute over the oil-rich coastal region. The transfer ceremony marked the final implementation of the 2002 International Court of Justice ruling that awarded sovereignty over Bakassi to Cameroon. Nigerian forces withdrew from their remaining positions while Cameroonian authorities assumed full administrative control of the peninsula and its fishing communities.

The Bakassi dispute originated from conflicting colonial-era boundary agreements between Britain and Germany in the early 1900s. Both Nigeria and Cameroon claimed the peninsula after independence, leading to military clashes in the 1990s that prompted Cameroon to take the case to the International Court of Justice in 1994. The court's 2002 decision favored Cameroon's claims based on the 1913 Anglo-German treaty, despite Nigeria's effective occupation of the area for decades.