History that deserves to be remembered.
24 January 1981.
Just before midnight two Nigerian helicopters started the sprint from the Special Operations Group in Port Harcourt to a Cameroonian Coast Guard outpost off the Rio Del Ray, catching Cameroonian gendarmes off guard.
Over a dozen Cameroonian troops were killed in the attack, which in itself was a response to the killing of Nigerian civilians and destructions of property in Calabar. The attack was meant to demonstrate Nigeria had the military capability to invade and defeat Cameroon.
The incident was satisfactorily resolved, with a Cameroonian apology and reparations. Major clashes flared up again in 1994, this time France sent a detachment of troops to Cameroon in a show of support.
However Cameroon took the case to the UN Security Council. Cameroon based its claim on Bakassi on a treaty signed between Britain and Germany in 1913.Nigeria denied the validity of the 1913 treaty, claiming Britain had no sovereignty and power to cede the area to Germany in 1913, and that the 1958 Geneva Agreement on international boundaries had set the Rio Del Ray as the boundary between the two countries, which will put the oil rich Bakassi in Nigeria.>br>
Fighting erupted again in 1996 with over 100 casualties on both sides. By this time Nigeria had little interest in initiating a war with Cameroon given French Security Pact with Cameroon and the deployment of French forces and aircrafts in a show of commitment. So while Nigeria’s military supremacy was given, the involvement of France was great disruptor in the balance of power.
Over a dozen Cameroonian troops were killed in the attack, which in itself was a response to the killing of Nigerian civilians and destructions of property in Calabar. The attack was meant to demonstrate Nigeria had the military capability to invade and defeat Cameroon.
The incident was satisfactorily resolved, with a Cameroonian apology and reparations. Major clashes flared up again in 1994, this time France sent a detachment of troops to Cameroon in a show of support.
However Cameroon took the case to the UN Security Council. Cameroon based its claim on Bakassi on a treaty signed between Britain and Germany in 1913.Nigeria denied the validity of the 1913 treaty, claiming Britain had no sovereignty and power to cede the area to Germany in 1913, and that the 1958 Geneva Agreement on international boundaries had set the Rio Del Ray as the boundary between the two countries, which will put the oil rich Bakassi in Nigeria.>br>
Fighting erupted again in 1996 with over 100 casualties on both sides. By this time Nigeria had little interest in initiating a war with Cameroon given French Security Pact with Cameroon and the deployment of French forces and aircrafts in a show of commitment. So while Nigeria’s military supremacy was given, the involvement of France was great disruptor in the balance of power.
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