Nigeria, Cameroon to demarcate border by end of 2015

President Muhammadu Buhari and President Paul Biya have agreed to complete the demarcation of the land border between Nigeria and Cameroon by the end of this year.

This follows Buhari’s declaration, in Yaounde on Wednesday, that Nigeria would continue to respect the judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

According to a communiqué issued on Thursday at the end of Buhari’s official visit to Cameroon, both leaders welcomed the progress made in the exercise which is being undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations.

According to the report: “The two heads of states took note of the satisfaction expressed by the United Nations' Secretary-General in his most recent report on the work done by the United Nations Office for West Africa regarding progress in the demarcation of the land boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria from January to June 2015.

“They agreed to endorse the recommendation of the United Nations' Secretary-General on the completion of work on the border before the end of 2015 in order to concentrate on enhancing cross-border cooperation”.

It was also revealed that Buhari and his host endorsed the commitments made at the Extraordinary Summit of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin Republic held on June 11, 2015 in Abuja.

Buhari and Biya further agreed to strengthen security cooperations along their shared border under the auspices of the Nigeria-Cameroon Trans-Border Security Committee and within the framework of the implementation of the concept of strategic operations which was approved at the Abuja Summit.

They reaffirmed their determination to strengthen cooperation with other neighbouring countries for the rapid elimination of terrorism and other security threats.