Greentree Agreement on Bakassi

In June 2006, Nigeria and Cameroon signed the Greentree Agreement in New York, formally ending their decades-long dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula. The agreement, brokered by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, established a framework for implementing the 2002 International Court of Justice ruling that awarded Bakassi to Cameroon. President Olusegun Obasanjo and Cameroon's President Paul Biya committed to a peaceful handover process, with Nigeria agreeing to withdraw its administration and military forces from the peninsula.

The Bakassi dispute had its roots in conflicting colonial-era boundary demarcations between British Nigeria and German Kamerun, later French Cameroun. Nigeria had controlled and administered Bakassi since independence, with significant Efik and Ijaw fishing communities calling it home. When Cameroon filed a case at the International Court of Justice in 1994, Nigeria contested the claim, arguing historical possession and the wishes of Bakassi's predominantly Nigerian population. The ICJ's 2002 ruling in favor of Cameroon based on colonial treaties shocked many Nigerians and required delicate diplomatic negotiations to implement.