11 persons are feared dead as Biafra Separatist groups and the Cameroon Forces clashed in Bakassi Peninsula of Cameroon in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, an explosion was said to have destroyed two gunboats of Joint Border Forces at Akpankanya in Bakassi Peninsula leaving six security operatives dead.
Sources said that the bomb was thrown into the boat by a suspected member of the Dragon Fighter Marine, a separatist militant group working for the realization of Biafra.
It was also gathered that the suspect came with a canoe boat in pretense that he was fishing when he threw the improvised expensive device (IED) on security men at the maritime border area and six soldiers were killed while the two gunboats were heavily damaged.
Meanwhile Cameroonian troops of the Rapid d’intervention Battalions (BIR), were reported to have launched a retaliatory attack on Dragon Fighter Marine in Akpankanya, Bakassi Peninsula on Tuesday killing two of the militant members.
The BIR forces reportedly went on rampage following killing of the Cameroonian soldiers by the militant group, an affiliate of Nigeria’s Biafra group, the Biafra Nations League (BnL), on Monday at about 11am.
It was gathered that the special forces of Cameroon stormed the area with gunboats opening fire on the Dragon Fighter Marine, taking them on a surprise attack.
In another incident on Tuesday at about 1pm,, sources said the Black Marine, another armed separatist Biafra loyalist group have drawn three Cameroonian soldiers in Idabato high sea forcing the BIR members to flee from the checkpoint and in the process captured three and threw them inside the high sea, the attack took place in Atabong area.
Commenting on these latest incidents, the Leader of the BnL, Princewill Chimezie Richards said, “it serves them right, they will learn from it”.
When asked if more attacks should be expected and why, he said, “it will because they have refused to park out from our territory and recognize us as a country”.
The BnL has been agitating against the continuous control of Bakassi Peninsula by Cameroon since the 2006 Green Tree Agreement (GTA) that finally gave Bakassi to Cameroon confirming the 2002 judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), insisting that the area belongs to Biafra. The group is also calling for the release of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu detained by the Nigerian government following the group’s quest for the restoration of Biafra.
