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21 Cameroon troops killed
14/11/2007 07:23 - (SA)
Yaounde - Unidentified gunmen killed 21 Cameroonian soldiers in an attack near Nigeria's border that also left about 10 of the assailants dead, said officials on Tuesday.
The attack on Monday in the formerly disputed Bakassi peninsula border with Nigeria had previously been reported by Nigerian military officials, who said their country's armed forces were not involved.
Presidential Secretary-General Laurent Esso said the Cameroonian soldiers were attacked by gunmen who set upon them in boats around the Isangele and Rio del Rey creeks. He said 21 soldiers were killed and 10 wounded.
Esso said: "About 10 of the aggressors were killed and one of their boats destroyed", adding that the attackers did not appear to be soldiers.
Ownership of the strip of territory jutting into the Gulf of Guinea was disputed for decades between the two countries until a 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice in favour of Cameroon paved way for Nigerian withdrawal in 2006.
The peninsula adjoined the eastern fringes of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, where armed insurgents had been active in recent years, but it remained unclear who carried out the attack.
Esso said an investigation had been opened into the incident and that those who were wounded had been taken to nearby hospitals.
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