Ambazonia, officially the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and commonly referred to as Amba Land, is a self-declared state, internationally considered an autonomous anglophone federal state of the UN-created Cameroon federation through resolution 1608(xv) in 1961. The federation combined the then independent French Cameroun republic with the newly independent former British Southern Cameroons. In May 1972, the majority French-speaking political leadership of Cameroon controversially abolished the federation to constitute a unitary state. The latter was further extinguished in January 1984 by decree. Since that time, the component federal state of French-speaking Cameroon has attempted to re-emerge with English-speaking Ambazonia tagged onto herself as mere regions in an admitted assimilation project amidst fierce resistance. Ambazonia is the successor state to the former British Mandate Territory of Southern Cameroons. Situated in the Gulf of Guinea, Ambazonia is bordered by the Cameroon Republic to the east, Nigeria to the north and west, and the Bight of Bonny of the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Its territory and population constitute an area of 42,710 square kilometres (16,490 square miles) populated by roughly five million people.