The transitional period in the Cameroun peninsula of Bakassi comes to a peaceful end as the Republic of Cameroun on Wednesday, took full sovereignty over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula.

The Bakassi peninsula was formally ceded to Cameroun by Nigeria on August 14, 2008, bringing to an end, 15 years of border conflict and then followed the United Nations-backed transitional period agreed by the two countries before the formal take over by the Cameroun Republic.

Bakassi peninsula has about 40,000 inhabitants, including many Nigerian expatriates, however, based on the formal take-over of the peninsula by Cameroun, Nigerians living in the peninsula are to apply for a visa or for Camerounian citizenship and the Camerounians on the other hand are to register with the tax authorities.

Cameroun originally took its claim over the sovereignty of the potentially oil and gas rich peninsula to the court in 1994, and the Bakassi was however ruled as part of Cameroun in October 2002 by the International Court of Justice (ICT).