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Southern Cameroons Faction Claims Bakassi Killings


The Post (Buea)


NEWS
14 December 2007
Posted to the web 14 December 2007

By Ernest Sumelong


A supposed Southern Cameroons faction has given a new twist to the killing of some 21
Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi recently by claiming responsibility over the
massacre.

The group, which calls itself the Liberators of the Southern Cameroons, has warned
that the death of the 21 Cameroonian soldiers in the Bakassi Peninsula was a tip of
the iceberg, as more deaths will be recorded soon.



After the soldiers were murdered, the act had initially been blamed on Niger Delta
Forces, a Nigerian based insurgent group.Later, reports claimed that fellow
Cameroonian soldiers killed the soldiers following allegations of illegal arms trade
with the Niger Delta Forces.

Claiming responsibility for the killing of the gendarmes, the group in an online
statement sent to Vanguard, a Nigerian tabloid, told the government of La République
du Cameroun to vacate Southern Cameroons because it is a sovereign homeland of a
people who do not belong to that country.

According to Vanguard, the mail they received is captioned "Bakassi Attack We Are
responsible." It reads: "Until France and la République du Cameroun leave our
homeland, the Southern Cameroons, we will not rest. We reject any intervention from
the AU or UN until every single French and French Cameroun colonial occupation force
leaves the Southern Cameroons, a country with her own internationally defined
borders.

We will defend those borders till our death. The Bakassi 21 is just the tip of the
iceberg."

The mail that is reportedly signed by a certain Jovo Avuk could be considered an
empty threat from a non-existent group that has nothing to do with the killings.

But when the news of the death of the 21 Cameroonian soldiers broke, the possibility
that the secessionist Southern Cameroons group might have a hand in the incident
could not be ruled out.

Since the attack, a Captain in the area was sacked while surveillance has heightened
in the area. Meanwhile, investigations are still going on about the murder.


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