ABSTRACT There is a great conviction that the International Court of Justice’s ruling in 2002 on the Bakassi boundary dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon, and Nigeria’s decision to obey the ruling may have stopped a fierce inter-state war over the boundary. Indeed, many then ascribed to the whole boundary demarcation process as peacebuilding, disregarding the structural changes marked by the violence of forced migration. This article explores how the boundary delimitation has produced particular sorts of structural violence characterised by state neglect, loss of livelihoods and destitution. Thus, the article argues that although a full-blown war was avoided, the socio-economic conditions of the Nigerian populations on both sides of the border were not adequately considered and guaranteed as part of the peace-building agenda. It further argues that Nigeria, like many post-colonial states with the concentration of developments in major cities, neglects rural and border communities. Thus, the border communities accommodating the former Bakassi residents have further degenerated into ‘ill-governed’ spaces. This article uses structural violence as a framework to analyse the primary and secondary data to provide some deeper insights into the issues of violence being experienced by the local populations living on both sides of the demarcated border.

中文翻译：

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建设和平还是结构性暴力？解构尼日利亚/喀麦隆边界划分的后果

摘要 2002 年国际法院对尼日利亚和喀麦隆巴卡西边界争端的裁决以及尼日利亚服从裁决的决定可能已经停止了一场激烈的国家间边界战争，这一点深信不疑。事实上，许多人随后将整个划界过程归咎于建设和平，而无视以强迫移民暴力为标志的结构性变化。本文探讨了边界划定如何产生以国家忽视、生计丧失和贫困为特征的特殊类型的结构性暴力。因此，文章认为，虽然避免了全面战争，但边界两侧的尼日利亚人口的社会经济条件并未作为建设和平议程的一部分得到充分考虑和保障。它还进一步认为，尼日利亚与许多发展集中在主要城市的后殖民国家一样，忽视了农村和边境社区。因此，容纳前巴卡西居民的边境社区进一步退化为“管理不善”的空间。本文使用结构性暴力作为框架来分析主要和次要数据，以更深入地了解生活在划定边界两侧的当地居民所经历的暴力问题。