BY UKET OKA, Calabar
Two bomb explosions have allegedly killed six Cameroonian Gendarmes at the entrance of the Cameroon Gendarmes base at Isangele in Bakassi Peninsula.
The attack which occured at about 2pm Friday was reportedly carried out by a militant group, Dragon Fighter Marine.
According to sources close to journalists in Calabar, Cross River State capital, four of the Gendarmes were also forced to surrender and were disarmed in Isangele Subdivision of Bakassi Peninsula.
Isangele Subdivision of Bakassi Peninsula is a ceded part formally under Nigeria, but now controlled by the Cameroonian Forces.
The sources said that the Dragon Fighter Marine drove with motor bikes and dropped two explosives while passing the entrance of Cameroon Gendarmes, killing six Gendarmes while four others were forced to surrender at gunpoint.
The sources added that, the militants however escaped unhurt before a reinforcement from the Cameroon Rapid d’intervention Battalions (BIR), could arrive at the scene.
Few days ago, the Biafra Nations League (BnL), a group agitating for the independence of Biafra, freedom of Biafran leaders like Nnamdi Kanu and for Cameroon to vacate Bakassi Peninsula, through it’s Operational Coordinator, Henry Edet, banned international business activities in the Gulf of Guinea, threatening to block the Idabato high sea unless foreigners including oil companies reach an agreement with the Biafran separatists.
Edet who has since been declared wanted by the Cameroon BIR, asked Nigeria and Cameroonian Forces to leave Bakassi, noting that it would not tolerate the presence of foreign armed forces in the territory.
Commenting on the attack, the Leader of the BnL, Princewill Richards, told journalists that, “it serves them (BIR) right.
”We have told them that our people will rise against them for failing to heed to our instructions to leave our territory,” Richards added.
On whether the militant group is planning more attacks in the Bakassi Peninsula, he said, “yes, from the gallant men over there… they are the owners of the land.x
It would be recalled that on September 22, a suspected Biafran militant suicide bomber was said to have walked to a checkpoint in Abana and exploded a bomb that killed seven Cameroonian Gendarmes.
Also for more than three weeks now, reoccurring attacks have caused panic in the area.
