C O N F I D E N T I A L LAGOS 000243

SIPDIS

DOE FOR GPERSON,CHAYLOCK
TREASURY FOR DFIELDS,RHALL
DOC FOR 3317/ITA/OA/KBURRESS
DOC FOR 3130/USFC/OIO/ANESA/DHARRIS
STATE PASS USTR FOR USTR AGAMA
STATE PASS USAID FOR GWEYNAND AND SLAWAETZ
STATE PASS OPIC FOR ZHAN AND MSTUCKART
STATE PASS TDA FOR LFITT, PMARIN
STATE PASS EXIM FOR JRICHTER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREF KDEM PBTS SMIG PREF NI CM
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: BAKASSI REFUGEE SITUATION IMPROVED

Classified By: Consul General Donna Blair for Reasons 1.4 (B,D)


1. (SBU) Acting Consul General spoke July 7 with Nzam Ogbe,
Chief of Staff to the Governor of Cross Rivers State. Ogbe
said that the refugee situation had stabilized and that the
situation was under control. The Governor had visited Ikang,
where the refugees are sheltering in a primary school, and
will go again in the near future, he said. Ogbu added there
had been some issue as to who was actually a refugee, he
said, but now sufficient blankets and food are available for
those in the camp he said. "All the parties have come
together; there are no longer any major issues," he
concluded.


2. (C) Dr. Theo Osin Oyuko (protect throughout), Executive
Director of the Cross River State Youth Assembly, told Acting
Consul General on July 7 that most of the refugees had
already left the camp. Those who left were riverine people
who earn their living from fishing. They had few household
goods or clothing when they lived in the Bakassi area, so
they were able to move quickly out of the Ikang camp and into
other riverine areas of the Niger Delta, he said. Oyuko
estimated that there are now fewer than 1,000 refugees living
in the primary school compound in Ikang. The conditions for
those who remain is much improved, with sufficient food and
blankets now provided by the Federal and State governments as
well as the interventions of Cross River Senator Florence
Ita-Giwa, he said. The government plans to resettle the
refugees and is discouraging them from attempting to return
to the Bakassi Peninsula. The youths who had been detained
by the Cameroonian gendarmes in Achimemotor, formerly called
Achibong, in northern Bakassi have been allowed to rejoin
their families in the camp in Ikang, Oyuko said. The
Government of Nigeria intervened and "sorted the matter out",
he said.


3. (C) Currently, tensions in and around the peninsula have
eased, Oyuko said. However, Oyuko believes that there will
still be problems in August when the handover of the
peninsula to Cameroon is finalized. Oyuko estimated that
there are up to 100 youths who call themselves the Bakassi
Freedom Fighters. They have allied themselves with the
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and
with the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC). They plan to
resist the final handover using arms, Oyuko said. Their
method is to attack and then to draw back into the creeks.



4. (SBU) Acting Consul General also spoke with Senator
Florence Ita-Giwa on July 7. The Senator said she would
return to Ikang on Thursday, July 10, to see for herself the
current state of affairs, but had no current information.

BLAIR