Adamawa Community Protests Land Encroachment By Cameroon Officials.

By Fidelis Jockthan

A community in Adamawa State known as Kwaja boardered by Cameroun Republic has staged a protest demanding the federal government’s urgent intervention to address alleged encroachment of their lands by the Cameroonian authority.

The protesters carrying placards said they were denied access to their farmlands.

Their placards read variously, ‘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 area of Mubi known for the cultivation of Irish potato.

Spokesman of 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 to the Thompson Marchand declaration of 1934 which the International Court of Justice accepts as the correct instrument that defines the boundary in the Kwaja area against the watershed line.

The letter reads in part, “In respect of the ICJ judgment, 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.