Seun Bamidele of affected populations, particularly in relation to citizenship, displacement, and social exclusion. This study departs from such frameworks by foregrounding the human consequences of legal diplomacy, particularly the emergence of postcolonial statelessness and the marginalization of displaced persons. It builds on, but also critiques, literature that under-theorizes the link between international legal processes and everyday governance failures in borderlands. At the heart of the conflict lies a convergence of legal, geopolitical, and socio-economic forces. The peninsula’s strategic location within the Gulf of Guinea — an area rich in offshore oil and gas reserves — greatly intensified the stakes of the territorial contest, reflecting broader patterns in which natural resource endowments exacerbate boundary tensions across Africa (Hart 2022; Ebolo 2022; Egeran 2015). For Nigeria, relinquishing control was framed as a national loss, while for Cameroon, asserting sovereignty symbolized a long-awaited restoration of territorial integrity (Caldwell 2012; Baye 2010; Akhere 2023). Yet, these state-centric narratives often obscured the experiences of Bakassi’s civilian population, many of whom were forcibly uprooted, denied legal protection, and left in a state of existential precarity (BBC 2013; Ngalim 2019; Macdonald 2024). Despite growing calls for more people-centered approaches to territorial conflict (Beckly 2013; Fobella 2007), little attention has been paid to how legal rulings reshape citizenship regimes and perpetuate structural marginalization. The Bakassi case thus presents a unique opportunity to interrogate the limits of international conflict resolution from below where legal sovereignty does not translate into protection or recognition for borderland populations. The humanitarian fallout of the conflict has been profound. More than a decade after the Greentree Agreement, thousands of displaced Bakassi indigenes in Nigeria remain in poorly resourced settlements with limited access to healthcare, education, or legal status (Unah 2021; Sheikh et al. 2016). The sociopolitical vacuum left by the state’s retreat from Bakassi has also enabled patterns of militarization, exclusion, and impunity both in Nigeria and Cameroon where military forces were deployed not merely for border defense but also for the suppression of dissent and control of local populations (Kah 2014; Beckly 2013). In this context, as Beckly (2013) and Fobella (2007) argue, the Bakassi dispute has contributed to wider instability in the region, including the emergence of separatist movements such as Ambazonia. Importantly, the Bakassi conflict cannot be understood in isolation from wider continental and theoretical debates. Legal scholars and critical Brazilian Journal of African Studies | Porto Alegre | v. 10, n. 19, Jan./Jun. 2025 | p. 144-169 145