Seun Bamidele integrate social justice and localized participation can deepen, rather than alleviate, marginalization and displacement (Nwoko 2015; Manby 2016). By situating Bakassi’s displaced communities within the broader discourse on statelessness and post-conflict exclusion, this study challenges dominant interpretations of the dispute that center on territorial integrity and sovereign compliance. Specifically, it highlights the production of legal invisibility and administrative abandonment among Bakassi residents, especially those who remained in Cameroon after the territory’s transfer. As Nguindip (2017) observes, Cameroonian nationality law, though formally codified, is functionally exclusionary posing both procedural and substantive obstacles to naturalization. Many former Nigerian residents report being denied birth certificates, identity cards, and access to basic services such as education and healthcare (Macdonald 2024). This situation directly contradicts Cameroon’s obligations under international human rights law, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Hussain (2023) and Odinkalu (2012) note that this form of exclusion is not merely a legal oversight but a structurally embedded form of violence, producing a population that exists in a legal vacuum, with neither recognition nor redress. This study’s gendered analysis further complicates the narrative by showing how women in displaced Bakassi communities suffer multidimensional forms of exclusion. The research reveals that displacement has amplified pre-existing gender inequalities, subjecting women to heightened risks of sexual violence, disinheritance, and social isolation. As Dayil (2015) and Oke-Chinda (2021) emphasize in their respective works on gender and conflict in Nigeria, post-conflict environments often reproduce patriarchal structures that render women both invisible and hyper-visible as victims of violence yet excluded from formal recovery processes. In Bakassi, the absence of gender-sensitive transitional justice mechanisms means that women’s specific experiences are neither documented nor addressed. For instance, female-headed households often lack access to land or housing in resettlement areas, while trauma support for survivors of sexual violence remains virtually non-existent. These findings corroborate broader feminist critiques of peacebuilding, which argue that “post-conflict reconstruction” often privileges elite male actors and national-level political settlements at the expense of everyday justice and healing (Cohn, Kinsella and Gibbings 2004). In addition to legal and gender-based exclusions, this study sheds light on a less examined but equally critical dimension: representational erasure. Media analysis reveals that Nigerian and Cameroonian news outlets, Brazilian Journal of African Studies | Porto Alegre | v. 10, n. 19, Jan./Jun. 2025 | p. 144-169 161