IDPs from Bakassi protest military abuse in Cross River

IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in Bakassi, Cross River State, have protested in large numbers over claims that the Nigerian Army’s “Operation Still Water” deployed to the Ikang region of Bakassi has harassed them.

Hundreds of people participated in the peaceful demonstration, which began at the Ikot Effiom Obutong resettlement camp and ended at the Ikang Bakassi fishing port. They came out to voice their anger and frustration over what they called “intimidation and harassment by the soldiers” and slavery in their own country.

The IDPs stated that troops had publicly flogged fishermen for possessing petroleum products that were allegedly used to power the fisherman’s boats.

The demonstrators held signs that read, among other things, “enough is enough,” “we are now slaves in our own land,” and “soldiers have inflicted enough damage.”

General Secretary of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Bakassi re-settlement camp, Mr. Linus Asuquo Essien, spoke on behalf of the demonstrators when he described their plight, saying, “Our children can no longer attend to school. Residents of our town, the most of whom are fishers, are frequently detained and imprisoned in the prisons of the Cameroon Republic.

“Now that we are constantly staying at home, we suffer from hunger and famine at the IDP camp. Our main employment is fishing, but the army have forbidden us from going fishing.

“We have over a hundred fishermen who were detained by the gerdams of Cameroon and imprisoned there simply because they were fishing.