Government alleges Cameroonian aggression in Bakassi

Nigeria on Wednesday alleged acts of aggression by its eastern neighbour, Cameroon, against Nigerians living in the disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula.

Deputy Minister of Defence, Olu Aunloye, told a news conference after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Abuja, that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government would no longer tolerate hostilities against Nigerians in the disputed territory.

"Cameroon has been showing a lot hostility toward us. Nigeria has a responsibility to its people to stop any act of aggression by any country or neighbour," Agunloye said.

He said latest reports of aggression by Cameroon in the Bakassi Peninsula prompted deliberations on the issue by the federal executive council. "For the President and the council to deliberate on this and ask me to say this [means] it is serious," Agunloye added.

Since 1994, both countries have amassed troops in the Bakassi Peninsula and engaged in a number of skirmishes. Cameroon subsequently filed a suit against Nigeria at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, The Netherlands.

Hearings were concluded in March with both parties making submissions. While Cameroon claims the peninsula on the basis of a 1913 Anglo-German pact, Nigeria insists that the area is part of the old Efik Kingdom which has always been under its administration and could not be ceded under the protectorate treaty signed with the British. A ruling is awaited.

The disputed peninsula is a territory between the two countries that juts into the Atlantic Ocean.