Nigeria and Cameroon have agreed to work together to protect their land and sea border from attacks by militants and pirates and to fight illegal trafficking of arms, drugs, oil products and migrants.
Minutes seen by Reuters on Monday from a weekend meeting in Yaounde of a joint commission of the oil-producing Gulf of Guinea neighbours pledged closer security cooperation along their 1,700 km (1,062-mile) frontier, including joint patrols.
The 12-page document said the measures would seek to respond to "cross-border attacks by militants, illicit arms sales, illegal bunkering of petroleum products, contraband, incessant militant and pirate attacks both within territorial and international waters of the two countries, drugs and human trafficking, as well as activities of armed resistance groups".
Authorities in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, are fighting a war against Niger Delta militants who often use fast launches to attack army posts and oil installations, sometimes striking at ships and rigs far out to sea in the Gulf of Guinea.
Cameroon is worried about this violence spilling over into its own territory and the government announced on Sunday it was reinforcing security on its own 360 km (225-mile) Atlantic coastline by installing radar and stepping up military patrols.
This followed an attack on September 28 against the Cameroonian coastal town of Limbe in which armed raiders in speedboats stormed ashore and robbed four banks, killing one person.
In their talks, Cameroon and Nigeria agreed to set up a cross-border security body that would establish joint patrols, collaborate in sharing intelligence and investigating crime and undertake joint search and rescue operations if the need arose.
The attack on Limbe was at least the third sea-borne raid of its kind in less than a year on Gulf of Guinea neighbours of Nigeria. Equatorial Guinea and Benin had reported similar raids.
BORDER VIOLENCE
Speaking in Limbe on Sunday, Cameroon's prime minister, Ephraim Inoni, said the September 28 attack surprised the security forces, who he said were under-staffed and poorly equipped.
"That is why we have decided to create a maritime brigade in Limbe, increase the number of forces of law and order there, and to launch radar surveillance of our coastline," he said.
Last month's raiders on Limbe, described as "suspected pirates" by Cameroon state radio, shot dead a local driver and used explosives to blast their way into banks, seizing large sums of money. They barricaded roads into the town, repelled Cameroonian soldiers and shot up the local prefect's office.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Cameroon state radio said a sack marked "Port Harcourt Flour Mill Ltd" was left in one bank, suggesting the raiders could be from Nigeria's Niger Delta, where Port Harcourt is a main city.
In August, Nigeria formally handed over control to Cameroon of the oil-rich Bakassi border pensinsula in line with a 2002 International Court of Justice order.
About 50 people have been killed in violence in Bakassi in the past year, including attacks on Cameroonian soldiers.
Worried about insecurity, the navies of the United States and other Western countries have stepped up visits to the area.
The United States imports more than 15 percent of its oil needs from the Gulf of Guinea and this is expected to increase to more than 25 percent by 2015.
(Reuters)
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