149- Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger)
On July 20th, 2012, Burkina Faso and Niger submitted a border dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) pursuant to a Special Agreement signed by both countries on February 24th, 2009. In Article 2 of the Special Agreement, the Court was requested in particular to determine the course of the boundary between the two countries in the sector from the astronomic marker of Tong-Tong to the beginning of the Botou bend.
The ICJ ruled on the merits of the case in its judgment of April 16th,2013. It noted that article 6 of the Special Agreement reaffirmed “the principle of the intangibility of boundaries inherited from colonization and the Agreement of 28 March 1987” and listed the documents that had to be used to determine the boundary line existing at the time of the two countries’ independence.
Subsequently, the Court appointed 3 experts tasked with delimiting the disputing area using the documents listed.
This summary is provided for informational purposes only, does not involve the responsibility of Dome and should in no way be used as a substitute for a careful reading of the judgment and order of the case.
