Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria) - Fixing of time-limits for the filing of the initial written pleadings

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INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

PeacePalace.2517 KJ TheHague.Tel(070.302 23 23).Cables:IntercourtT . he Hague.

Telefax(070.364 99 28). Telex 32323.

Communiqué

unofficial
for immediate ralea••

No. 94/13
20 June 1994

Land and Maritime Boundary between cameroon and Nigeria
fCameroon v. Nigeria)

The following information is communicated to the Press by the

Registry of the International Court of Justice:

As indicated in Press Communiqué No. 94/12 of 30 March 1994, the

Republic of Cameroon, on 29 March 1994, filed in the Registry of the
Court an Application instituting proceedings against the Federal Republic
of Nigeria in respect of a dispute described as relating essentially ~tc

the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula", and by which the
Court was also reguested to determine part of the maritime boundary
between the two States;

On 6 June 1994 Cameroon filed in the Registry of the Court an
Additional Application "for the purpose of extending the subject of the

dispute" to a further dispute described as rel a ting essentially "t.o the
question of sovereignty over a part of the territory of cameroon·in the
area of Lake Chad", while also asking the Court to specify definitively

the frontier between Cameroon and Nigeria from Lake Chad to the sea.
Cameroon reguested the Court to adjudge and declare:

"(a) that sovereignty over the disputed parcel in the area of Lake Chad
is Cameroonian, by virtue of international law, and that that parce!
is an integral part of the territory of Cameroon;

(b) that the Federal Republic of Nigeria bas violated and is violating
the fundamental principle of respect for frontiers inherited from

colonization (uti possidetis juris), and its recent legal
commitments concerning the demarcation of frontiers in Lake Chad;

(c) that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by occupying, with the support
of its security forces, parcels of Cameroonian territory in the area
of Lake Chad, has violated and is violating its obligations under

treaty law and customary law;

(d) that in view of these legal obligations, mentioned above, the

Federal Republic of Nigeria has the express duty of effecting an
immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from
Cameroonian territory in the area of Lake Chad;

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(e) that the internationally unlawful acts referred to under (a), (b),
(c) and (d) above ~nvolve-the responsibility of the Federal Republic

of Nigeria;

(e') that consequently, and on account of the material and

non-material damage in~licted upon the Republic of Cameroon,
reparation in an amount to be determined by the Court is due
from the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Republic of

Cameroon, which reserves the introduction before the Court of
[proceedings for] a precise assessment of the damage caused by
the Federal Republic of Nigeria;

(f) that in view of the repeated incursions of Nigerian groups and
armed forces into Cameroonian territory, all along the

frontier between the two countries, the consequent grave and
repeated incidents, and the vacillating and contradictory
attitude of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in regard to the

legal instruments defining the frontier between the two
c6untries and the exact course of that frontier, the Republic
of Cameroon respectfully asks the Court to specify

definitively the frontier between Cameroon and the Federal
Republic of Nigeria from Lake Chad to the sea".

Cameroon further requested the Court ta join the two Applications
"and ta examine the whole in a single case".

At a meeting between the President of the Court and the

representatives of the Parties held an 14 June 1994, the Agent of Nigeria
indicated that his Government bad na abjection ta the Additional

Application being treated as an amendment to the initial Application, sa
that the Court could deal with the whole as one case.

The Court, seeing no objection to such a procedure, fixed, by an

Order of 16 June 1994, the following time-limits for the written
proceedings:

16 March 1995 for the Memorial of the Republic of cameroon;
•
l8 December 1995 for the Counter-Memorial of the Federal Republic of

Nigeria.

The subsequent procedure is reserved for further decision.

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