/ 19 May 1999

PROGRESS IN PENINSULA DISPUTE

NIGERIA’S outgoing military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar said on Monday his country and Cameroon have agreed to resolve their long-running dispute over the Bakassi peninsula “in brotherly fashion.” Speaking after talks with Cameroon’s President Paul Biya Monday, Abubakar said his one-day visit had been a great success, while Biya called it “very useful.” The Cameroon leader said Abubakar had invited him to attend the inauguration of Nigeria’s president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, and he expected to attend. Nigeria and Cameroon have since December 1993 disputed who owns the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula that lies between the two countries and have taken the dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.