“We are warning the Cameroon government that if an audience is not given to us after 15 days, more soldiers will go to hell”, Ebi Dari stated in the letter. He added that the Bakassi Freedom Fighters will not compromise their position in the area.

“There is no way by any means we will compromise our stance in the area without proper negotiation”, he warned.

Commander Ebi Dari recalled that their adoption recently of oil workers from oil rigs off the shores of Cameroon was their way of showing a peaceful protest to attract the attention of the Cameroon government. Dari, however, stated that the peaceful exchange of the hostages does not mean they have lost their “sense of struggle or fight in the area.” Dari then declared that “our next attack is going to be fatal and brutal and we promise that more soldiers will die”.

It should be recalled that the Bakassi rebels began fomenting trouble in the Peninsula shortly before its official handover to Cameroon by Nigeria on 14 August 2008.

Their first attack was last year, which led to the death of 21 Cameroonian soldiers.

The rebels stroke again on Monday 9 June 2008, killing Felix Morfaw Fonya, Divisional Officer of Kombo Abedimo and several Cameroonian soldiers.

Meanwhile, in the night of Sunday 29 September 2008, banks in Limbe were attacked by gunmen using heavily artillery. They reportedly carted away huge sums of money. Nonetheless, the Bakassi Freedom Fighters later in a letter dated 1 October 2008, denied involvement in the banks robbery.

Again on 18 December 2008, there was an attack on a Cameroonian fishing boat in Jabane in the Bakassi peninsula. A statement from the Minister of Defence said the fishing boat was attacked by two speedboats belonging to some pirates. The release stated that Cameroonian military forces stationed in Jabane, informed of the attacks, went on a manhunt for the assailants and succeeded to sink one of their boats while the other is reported to have escaped towards the Nigerian end of the Peninsula. This time around there was no material or human casualties on the Cameroonian side.

As if this was not enough, the Bakassi rebels on 31 October 2008 kidnapped oil workers from oil rigs off the shores of Cameroon. They demanded immediate holding of negotiations with the Cameroon government and threatened to kill them one after the other if this was not done.

However, the hostages were later released.