Nigeria relinquished control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to its neighbour Cameroon today despite fears the handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups opposed to the change.
Heightened security concerns in Bakassi forced organisers to cancel a formal flag-exchanging ceremony at the peninsula's main town Abana, relocating it instead to a safer venue in Calabar city, some 192 km away.
Analysts said Cameroon will have to confront the deteriorating security situation before it can begin to exploit the region's offshore oil reserves.
The two African countries, which nearly went to war over Bakassi on several occasions, have agreed to work together to explore for oil in the region, which could help boost Cameroon's declining production of around 90,000 barrels per day.
"The Nigerian-Cameroon relationship will develop very well because of the handing over," said Kieran Prendergast, a member of the United Nations delegation at the event.
The Nigerian government agreed to transfer Bakassi two years ago in line with a 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) order but violence, political disputes and legal skirmishes had delayed it. About 50 people have been killed in border fighting in the last year alone.
Around 90 per cent of the population in the Bakassi peninsula, estimated at 200,000 to 300,000, are Nigerian fishermen and their families. Bakassi leaders and Nigerian politicians say they do not want to become Cameroonians. Nigeria has offered to resettle them.
Nigeria and Cameroon fought over Bakassi in 1994 when Cameroon first took its case to the World Court, and again in 1996. The ICJ gave Bakassi to Cameroon in a 2002 ruling, based largely on a 1913 treaty between former colonial powers Britain and Germany.
AP