Ernest Sumelong & Francis Tim Mbom
12 June 2008
Intelligence sources have confirmed the gunning down on Monday, June 9, of the Divisional Officer, DO, for Kombo Abedimo in the disputed Bakassi Peninsula.
Felix Fonya Morfaw, a Gendarmerie Brigade Commander and four soldiers were reportedly shot dead by yet to be identified gunmen. Their bodies, arms and boats are said to have been carted off to an unknown place by their assailants.
According to our sources, this information was gotten from three other soldiers who managed to escape during the assault. At least one of them is presently being treated for gunshot wounds in Akwa, Kombo Abedimo.
The Attack
According to Cameroon's Army Chief of Staff, General Rene Claude Ze Meka, the DO of Kombo Abedimo was heading nine-man delegation on his maiden official visit to a fishing port in Kombo when tragedy struck.
But our own sources hinted that the Fonya delegation had as mission, to restore and enforce state authority in the area whose rather recalcitrant inhabitants are mostly of Nigerian extraction. But that by some weakness in Cameroon's security network, news of the impending visit had leaked to the perpetrators of the grisly act. Almost the entire Nigerian community, who constitute 80 percent of the area are said to have taken off, just about when the DO's delegation was about to arrive.
When Fonya and his entourage arrived, the gunmen allegedly opened fire even before they had time to alight from their boats. Our source said she was convinced that whoever perpetrated the act could be privy to Cameroon's military intelligence.
She told The Post that this was possible, owing to the fact that majority of the inhabitants of the Bakassi area are Nigerians and that it would only be natural for them to give their allegiance "where it truly belongs and matters". To her, Cameroon's intelligence network in the disputed territory is almost next to zero, whereas the Nigerians, to borrow her words, have mined the entire area with undercover agents.
According to her, the same interest group has, in the recent past, ensured that Cameroon's national flag was brought down each time it was hoisted here, hence the ill-fated decision of the Cameroonian authorities to restore and enforce state authority in the place.
Our source says the attack could have been perpetrated with what she called the disguised backing of certain foreign authorities, on account of the August date by which the Bakassi dispute is supposed to be "completely dealt with in Cameroon's favour".
Except for the press release by the Army Chief of Staff, explaining the circumstances of the assault, there has been no statement from the Presidency.A special team of top military officers has reportedly been assigned to Bakassi with a brief to fish out culprits of Monday's attack.
Colonel Hypolite Ekaba of "Operation Delta," the military unit in charge of Bakassi operations, is leading the officers in the investigation.As at midday Wednesday, June 11, The Post gathered that the officers were still being awaited at the assault site.
It should be recalled that Colonel Ekaba took over from Oyono Mveng as the new Commander of the Delta Command following the killing of 21 soldiers on November 21, 2007.
August 14 Handover
Even though the reason for the attack remains unclear, sources claim that the August 14 date for the handover of the remaining portions of the Bakassi Peninsula has evoked anger in the local inhabitants who are mostly Nigerians.
That is why some claim that a rebellious group in the area that has expressly opposed the handover is not unconnected with the killings.Even though Cameroon was given control of the area, prior to August 14, 2008, when the remaining parts of the Peninsula are expected to be ceded to Cameroon, local administrative officials have had a Herculean task trying to stamp their authority.
The relationship between local Cameroon administrators in most areas in Bakassi and the inhabitants is sour. Both parties treat each other with mutual suspicion. The attacks further frustrate the work of the joint commission charged with implementing the Green Tree Accord and the final ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon.
Since the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ruled in favour of Cameroon, the death toll for Cameroonian soldiers has continued to pile for various reasons.In his recent visit to Bakassi, the head of the European Union, EU, Delegation to Cameroon, Javier Puyol, cautioned security forces, deployed in the area, to tread with care.
Puyol, speaking in a press conference in Yaounde, said the counsel came against a background of suspicion, scepticism and distancing observed from the rather cold reception adopted by the people of Bakassi when he visited the area.
The fresh assault has come not only to compromise efforts by officials of both countries to ensure a peaceful transfer of the rest of the disputed area, but it might create a stalemate and suspicion between the two nations. Besides, it is the second attack on Cameroonian soldiers after 21 soldiers were killed in November, still by unknown gunmen.
The DO who was involved in the ill-fated incident, it should be recalled, also served as DO of Muyuka from where he was punitively transferred to Kombo Abedimo after the 2004 Presidential elections at the instance of his boss who, The Post learnt, got the Yaounde authorities to believe that he had SCNC sympathies.
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