evidence: The peninsula of Bakassi has long been the subject of a territorial dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria. Now it shows what can happen to people when control over the territory where they live shifts from one country to another. Tens of Thousands of people, possibly more, who inhabited (and some of whom still inhabit) the peninsula have lost access to nationality or citizenship rights, and now live in a legal limbo. In October 2002, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague decided that Bakassi was part of Cameroon, not Nigeria. Until then, Bakassi had been part of Nigeria and was one of the 774 units of local government in the country. The United Nations subsequently mediated negotiations between Nigeria and Cameroon to ensure effective implementation of the ICJ decision. [...] The human consequences of these omissions were obvious on a recent visit into Bakassi. In 2007, Bakassi reportedly had an estimated population of about 300,000. Today, most of its people have been "re-located" into the neighboring territory of Nigeria’s Cross-River State, a mere 20 minute’s boat ride away. In elections for the office of Governor of Cross-River State in March 2012, the former inhabitants of Bakassi (now displaced into the Nigerian State to which they always belonged) were unable to vote: they were no longer on the voters' register, their settlements no longer existed in Nigeria, and they had no means of proving their entitlement to vote. On voting day on 25 February, they took to the streets to protest over their apparent statelessness.