Enclaves of Forcados and Badjibo

[9] Lease terms were determined by agreements signed on 20 May 1903 giving effect to article 8 of the convention of 14 June 1898 by the French Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé, and Sir Edmund Monson, British Ambassador to France.

The agreement was reached in the context of the Entente cordiale between the two countries, ending a period of tension and competition over territories in Africa, and based on the principle of freedom of navigation along the length of the Niger.

Each leased territory amounted to approximately 47 hectares (less than 0.2 square miles) and was designated for the unloading, storing and transshipping of goods, with residents confined to staff employed for these purposes together with their families and servants.

[12] The leased area was trapezoid in shape, with the short side on the estuary of the Forcados River near the village of Gula, opposite Ogidiba, and stretching back 700m from the water's edge.

[13] The Badjibo enclave (not to be confused with the place of the same name in Gabon) was located at the confluence of the Niger with the much smaller Doko,[14] about 36 km upstream from Jebba and downstream from the Boussa rapids where Mungo Park died.