By Meryl White
Impunity Watch Reporter, Western and Central Africa

BAKASSI, Cameroon – Nigerian and Cameroonian officials are meeting in Abuja to determine who killed 21 Cameroonian soldiers in the Tuesday attack in the Bakassi peninsula. Presently, both the Nigerian Army and Nigerian militant groups from the Niger Delta are denying their involvement. Witnesses claim that the attackers were dressed in Nigerian Army uniforms.

Nigerian Army spokesman, Col Amu told the BBC’s Network Africa programme: “We are all abiding by the decisions of the court; we withdrew our troops in compliance with that decision and ever since the relationship between the two countries have been at an all time high.”

Simultaneously, a Nigerian armed group has blown up and ruptured a major oil pipeline in the Niger Delta. This has impacted two main crude oil export terminals. The bomb resulted in the spillage in a large volume of oil in the Forcados site.

The Nigerian government speculates that the attack could have been conducted by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the militant group that was thought to be responsible for earlier attacks on an Exxon Mobil oil terminal. The Exxon Mobile attack follows the five-month ceasefire against workers of the oil industry. The ceasefire was an attempt for armed groups in the area to abandon their weapons and seek discussion with the Nigerian government.

For more information, please see:

Impunity Watch – 20 Cameroonian soldiers attacked in Bakassi Peninsula – 13 November 2007

BBC – Delta Militants Deny Bakassi Raid – 15 November 2007

BBC – Nigeria and Cameroon Probe Attack  – 14 November 2007