Cameroonian armed security operatives have encroached and seized farmlands from Nigerians in border communities, SaharaReporters learnt.
Some residents of Kwaja, a border community in Adamawa State, have cried out, urging the Nigerian government to recover their land from the Cameroonian authorities.
The residents have vehemently protested, saying they were denied access to their farmlands.
Their protest message says, ‘Maintain ICJ position’, ‘We agreed to the 1932 Thompson Marchand Declaration’, We request for Protection from Nigerian Government’.
The community alleged that Cameroonian officials on 14 February, 2022 erected demarcation signs in Kwaja, Kinga, Jugrma, Fajawa Girziya villages in the Mubi South Local Government Area, known for the cultivation of Irish potatoes.
The spokesman for the community, Dr Ibrahim Kwaja said a letter requesting the Nigerian government to protect the rights and interest of the people has been addressed to the federal and state governments and Nigeria/Cameroon Mixed Commission on the boundary, stressing that the community was amalgamated as part of Northern protectorate in 1914.
The letter agrees with the Thompson Marchand declaration which the International Court of Justice accepts as the correct instrument defining the boundary in the Kwaja area against the watershed line.
The letter reads in part, “In respect of the ICJ judgement, we stand to argue that our people from generation have never in any case spread beyond Nigerian boundary.
“We would not continue to watch our community tortured by confiscation of our shelter and farmlands.”