By Ani Akpan
IKANG, Nigeria (Reuters) - Hundreds of Nigerians have fledCameroon's Bakassi peninsula fearing reprisals by the securityforces after suspected Nigerian pirates kidnapped six people inthe area this week.
The attackers captured a Cameroonian local governmentofficial and five soldiers on Monday after firing on their boatin the peninsula, which Nigeria handed back to Cameroon twoyears ago after a decades-long dispute.
Three other soldiers in the craft escaped the attack,including one who was seriously wounded.
Several hundred Nigerians had fled the peninsula since theincident and were sheltering in the town of Ikang, on theNigerian side of the border, witnesses said.
"I let go three classroom blocks for temporary shelter andI have allotted 210 school-age refugees to classes so they cancontinue their education ... but I fear more will arrive," saidEvogor Ememg, headmaster of Ikang primary school.
Some of those who fled said they had been chased out byCameroonian gendarmes.
"The gendarmes came and ordered us to go, claiming thatNigeria attacked and killed their soldiers," said one of thereturnees, Bright Zato. "They burnt a house in Misong fishingport and my business is suffering."
Cameroonian officials rejected suggestions that Nigerianswere leaving because of harassment by their soldiers.
"They are just suspicious that our security forces maymount reprisals against them," said Aboko Patrick, mayor of thelocal town of Kombo Abedimo.
He said the authorities had sealed off the area and weresearching for the kidnappers, whom many locals suspected wererebels from Nigeria's nearby oil-rich Niger Delta.
SURPRISE INFLUX
Nigerian officials said a five-year handover plan for theBakassi peninsula, which involves the voluntary resettlement ofNigerian communities, was still on track but admitted they hadbeen surprised by the latest influx.
"The ceding of Bakassi is going to plan ... (but) we neverforesaw this. We thought there will be no stampede. We have noteven completed the buildings for returnees," said Florence ItaGiwa, chairman of the Cross River state resettlement committee.
More than 20 Cameroonian soldiers were killed in Bakassi inNovember when gunmen travelling by speedboat attacked theirpost. Cameroon said its forces killed around 10 assailants,whom it suspected were members of a militant group fromNigeria.
Nigeria's oil heartland of the Niger Delta, which producessome two-thirds of the hydrocarbons from Africa's leading oilexporter, lies westwards from Bakassi, which is also known tocontain offshore oil deposits.
Around 90 percent of the population in the Bakassipeninsula are Nigerian fishermen and their families. Nigeriahanded the region back to Cameroon in 2006 in line with anInternational Court of Justice ruling.
Other Gulf of Guinea states have suffered pirate attacks,including oil-producing Equatorial Guinea and Benin.
The United States, which imports more than 15 percent ofits oil needs from the Gulf of Guinea, says the region's nearly2,000 nautical miles of coast are largely unobserved,uncontrolled and vulnerable to "terrorist groups, criminalgangs, or separatist militias".
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)
(Additional reporting by Tansa Musa in Yaounde; Writing byDaniel Flynn and Nick Tattersall; Editing by Caroline Drees)
