Nigeria may delay pilot project for marking boundary with Cameroon, UN says
The work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission marking the boundary between the two West African countries could be delayed because Nigeria "regrettably" has decided to skip verification of the line in a village in the pilot project, the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said today.
The work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission marking the boundary between the two West African countries could be delayed because Nigeria "regrettably" has decided to skip verification of the line in a village in the pilot project, the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said today.
"The pilot project is an extremely important endeavour and marks the beginning of the actual demarcation exercise, which has been entrusted to the Mixed Commission. Stalling the process is not an acceptable course of action. The work must continue," Mixed Commission Chairman and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for West Africa Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said.
The procedures for the field assessment had been mutually agreed and laid out in guidelines in February 2005 in Abuja, Nigeria, but had not been adhered to, he said.
The Mixed Commission Joint Technical Team's demarcation of the boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria started on Wednesday last week with the pilot field assessment aimed at identifying pillar sites and verifying in the field the line as drawn on preliminary maps.
The maps cover a 60-kilometre stretch of the border near Dumo, according to the delimitation established by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its October 2002 judgement.