Mystery and Intrigue in a Tropical Paradise - Revisiting the Speedboat Attack on Limbe

Dibussi Tande

With its wide beaches laden with purpleblack volcanic sands, its magnificient botanic gardens, its historic seafront, its proximity to Mount Fako, the tallest mountain in West Africa ,and to Debundscha the second wettest place on the planet, etc., Limbe is a tourist’s paradise.

The Down Beach area, which now serves as the town’s banking district, was once the nucleus of the “historic” Victoria – that strip of land, some twelve miles long along the Atlantic coast and five miles into the interior – settled in 1858 by Alfred Saker and freed Jamaican slaves from Sierra Leone and the neighboring island of Fernando Po.

Today, Down Beach, with its century-old administrative buildings and churches reminds a traveler of a British outpost in the Caribbean – the kind of place that inspires romance novels and definitely not the setting for a James Bond thriller.

In spite of developments in the past quarter of a century which have largely stripped Limbe of its erstwhile colonial feel, this is still a quintessential colonial town where vestiges of British – and German – colonial rule abound.  In many respects, it is  a town that time left behind – or a town that is “stuck in a gentle lethargy” as one observer puts it – caught between the 19th and 21st centuries. Today it lags behind other port cities on the West African coast which it was on par back in the 1950s and 1960s.

Victoria is strategically located on the Gulf of Guinea along an important maritime route and shares a boundary with the oil-rich Bakassi peninsular which has been a hotspot for years. It is also barely a couple of hours drive from Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital and home to SONARA, Cameroon’s lone oil refinery.

Thanks to its location, Limbe has a natural maritime defense system which was put to use as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries by the British whose Men O’ War patrolled the area protecting maritime trade routes or tracking down rogue merchant ships involved in the Transatlantic slave trade – Man O’ War Bay, located on the outskirts of Limbe is named after these famous navy ships. In addition to its natural defenses, Limbe is today a town ringed by a series of military installations which make it (at least on paper) one of the most secure cities on the West African coast.

Straight out of a Crime thriller
Given the preceding background, what happened in the scenic Down Beach in the night of September 27-28 was totally at odds with Limbe’s reputation as a laid back (some say sleepy) town with excellent security. According to news reports, about 20-50 gunmen arrived in speedboats under cover of darkness and attacked four prominent banks. On paper, this brazen attack was a foolhardy one because this is precisely the kind of “grand banditisme” that the Government of Cameroon has been preparing for in the past decade with the creation of special task forces such as

• the GSO (Groupement Special d'Operation or Special Operations Task Force) for the police;
• the GPIGN (Groupement Polyvalent d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale or National Gendarmerie Multi-dimensional Intervention Task Force) for the Gendarmerie;
• The BIR (Bataillon d'Intervention Rapide or Rapid Intervention Battalion) for the Army

According to newspaper reports, at the time of the attack members from these task forces had fanned out across the Southwest province (including Limbe), deployed to quell demonstrations and other activities by the SCNC in the the run-up to October 1.

In addition, there were no less than six different military units/installations around Limbe whose reach extended as far as Douala to the West and Bakassi to the East:

• The Man O War Bay military base located some seven kilometers away from the crime scene;
• The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) temporarily based at the Man O War Bay military;
• The Special Battalion for the Protection of SONARA (CSPS), about one nautical mile from the crime scene;
• The Bakassi Operation Delta Command with headquarters in Bota, also located barely a few miles from the crime scene;
• The  Isongo Naval Base
• Tiko Special Amphibious Battalion
• To this we could add the Douala naval base  from where forces could easily be deployed by sea to Limbe in a couple of hours.

Thus, the speedboat attack on the Limbe seafront which, according to eyewitness accounts, lasted about three hours, should in theory have been easily crushed with the disproportionate firepower and skills of the Special Forces in the area, some of whom have been specifically trained to tackle criminal activity involving the use of “small arms and light weapons”.

However things turned out differently. According to one news report:

“Residents were awakened… by sustained heavy gunfire… followed by sporadic firing into the air …Using explosives, they blasted their way into four banks in central Limbe, seizing large sums of money. They barricaded roads leading into the town, repelled a group of Cameroonian soldiers and shot at the office of the local prefect.”

By the time the assailants boarded their speedboat and fled into the night – unscathed – they had killed one civilian and wounded five, and made away with about 240 million FCFA (about half a million dollars) from one of the four banks.

Who dunnit?
Initial reports suggested that the attacks may have been carried out by rebels from Bakassi or even from the Delta region in Nigeria, or by SCNC militants. Others surmised that this was an “internal job” carried out by  members of the Cameroonian military, which would not only explain the surgical precision of the attacks but also the failure of military and security forces in the area to put up robust riposte. Other conspiracy theorists have linked the attack to US attempts to set up the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), arguing that increased insecurity on the West African coast will force African regimes more receptive to the idea of setting up the AFRICOM headquarters and even bases in the region. Cameroon’s Minister of Defense, on his part, tried to downplay the incident, arguing that the attack was not the work of a sophisticated group, but of neighborhood thugs:  "In our opinion, these were not big thieves who came from afar. They must have been people who know the place well; people who live among us."

Wholesale Incompetence

Whichever version catches your fancy, one fact is irrefutable. Cameroonian military and security forces failed woefully. Even if this were the work of elements from within the military, it is unlikely, if not impossible, that they were able to involve all the military branches and special units in and around Limbe, including the local police and gendarmerie. So the incompetence argument still stands – Those shiny new navy speedboats never showed up; troops did not pour in from SONARA, Isongo, Man O’ War Bay or elsewhere;

Cameroonian Navy - No-Show (c) The Post

the Special Forces who had infiltrated the province in anticipation of the October 1 showdown were a no-show, along with the local police and gendarmerie; the Rapid Intervention Battalion, which became a household name after its bloody of the February 2008 riots, intervened at a snails pace and when it finally made it to the scenem it failed to neutralize the bandits. Of what use is a “rapid intervention battalion” which cannot be mobilized in less than 15-30 minutes? Worse, some BIR elements allegedly got lost on their way to Down Beach. According to Eden Newspaper, “At about 4:15 am, a special military intervention unit ran into Eden and others at Half Mile, Limbe and surprisingly inquired where the bandits were. On being told, they had sailed away. They expressed regret*...

Conspiracy or not, internal military plot or not, what happened in Limbe was a manifestation of a complete breakdown or the absence of communication and coordination between the different military and security branches in and around Limbe. The slow, clumsy and uncoordinated response demonstrated, if need be, the absence of a viable defense strategy for Limbe and other key port cities on the Cameroonian coast – a shortcoming which is criminal considering that these attacks did not just occur out of the blue:

• On December 5, 2007 a similar commando-style attack took place in Bata in neighboring Equatorial Guinea when “heavily armed gunmen attacked two banks simultaneously grabbing bags of cash and shooting passers-by before making off in speedboats into the Atlantic Ocean.”
• Four months later on April 1, 2008, bandits launched a similar brazen daylight attack on two banks in Cotonou, Benin, carted away huge sums of  money then fled off in speedboats.

And according to the French language daily, Mutations, Cameroonian authorities were specifically  warned months ago that banking institutions in Limbe and elsewhere on the Cameroonian cost were being targeted. This position is shared by The Post newspaper which clarifies that "Limbe security, some time in December 2007, received instructions from Yaounde alerting them of a planned attack... Fako and Limbe administrators, at the time, took measures and security around the banks was stepped up. But as time went on, the measures lapsed".

These reports tie in with the Minister of Defense's declaration that the government knew of the attack in advance. Inspite of this glaring security failure, the Minister of Defense nonetheless sought to shift the blame onto the banks, arguing that the they were expected, in fact required, to provide the first line of defense against such attacks with security forces simply coming in as a second line of defense. Thus, by failing to put in place a security system capable of repelling the comandos, the minister argued, the banks had failed in their duty! Please tell; how many banks in the world actually design their internal security in anticipation of an attack by 40-50 commandos armed with AK 47s, grenades and explosives, etc. who are able to hold off elite forces for 3 hours?

This was not a regular bank hold-up but a military attack. Thus, to argue that it was the place of banks to provide the “first line of defense” while security forces took their beauty sleep is a most illogical argument and a major copout – elsewhere, government officials have been fired for less!

Contaminated evidence
The incompetence in Limbe continued well after the bandits had left.  Seasoned investigators where shocked to note that the entire crime scene, from the banks to the streets, was never completely secured or cordoned off from the public. Barely hours after the attack, TV crews, government officials and other hangers-on were let into the banks for a series of “inspection tours”, trampling over, touching and compromising potential evidence, even though the preliminary investigations were not yet wrapped up. As a result, it is unlikely that any credible or useful evidence will ever be obtained from the crime scene, that is, if a thorough and professional investigation was ever in the cards…

So should  heads roll? Yes, they should! It is under this same military command and political leadership that 21 Cameroonian soldiers were killed in Bakassi November 21, 2007 after another surprise speedboat attack; it was under this same leadership that Divisional Officer for Kombo Abedimo, still in Bakassi, was ambushed and murdered along with four soldiers; and it is under their watch that the Limbe attack occurred. Downplaying the Limbe incident or blaming the banks does not cut it.

Unfortunately, all these events are taking place in a system where officials are never held accountable for their actions or inactions…

Endnote
In 1982 the Biya regime decided that the name Victoria was too foreign for a Cameroonian town. So it decided to rename the town "Limbe". However, the name Limbe is neither indigenous to the area, nor to Cameroon for that matter; it is merely a corruption of Lindbergh, the name of the German engineer who built the bridge across the river which separates the botanical gardens from "old" Victoria in the early 20th century. Skeptics argue that the goal of the Biya regime was never to "indigenize" the town's name, and that the name change was merely part of a policy to strip Victoria of its erswhile "British character". But that is a story for another day…

Old Victoria in the late 19th Century

Seaview picture of Limbe courtersy of the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Office (MCEO).

Comments

[Nanje]

Great historical piece and nice analysis of the Limbe heist. Quite different from other analyses elsewhere.

[dango tumma]

MR DIBUSSI,
BUT YOU DIDNT MENTIONED THE FACT THAT THESE
BANDITS ARE FRENCH-CAMEROUNESE, SINCE THE
BANK GUARDS SAID THE BANDITS SPOKE FRENCH,
THAT SUGEST THAT THERE WERE FROM DOUALA.
AND VICTORIA, IS NOT THE OLY PLACE IN SOUTHERN CAMEROONS AKA AMBAZONIA, THAT LOOKS
LIKE A PLACE WHERE TIME HAVE LEFT BEHIND, ALL SOUTHERN CAMEROONS LOOKS LIKE THAT. IN FACT, BIG SHIPS USED TO DOCK RIGHT THERE IN VICTORIA,BEFORE YOU WERE BORN, AIRPLANE USED TO LAND AT TIKO AIRPORT FROM LONDON,
TIKO USED TO EXPORT BABNASS TO SWEDEN. WHAT
IS THE DIFFERENCE? THE DIFFERENCE AND ONE COMMONALITY TO THE FRENCH CAMEROUN ILLEGAL OCCUPATION AND COLONISATION IS THAT ALL COLONIZERS ALWAYS. IMPOVERISH THEIR SUBJECTS, TERRORIZED THEM WITH ALL KINDS OF MILITARY, THIS IS NOT MEANT FOR THE SECURITY OF THE VICTIMS, AMBAZONIANS, BUT TO CONSTANTLY INTIMIDATE THEM INTO SUBMISSION, SOO , FRENCH CAMEROUN COULD CONTINUE TO EXPLOIT SONANRA, CDC, PAMOL ETC
TO ETERNITY, MEANWHILE TOSE WHO HAVE EYES BUT DONT SEE, WOULD ALWAYS DANCE AROUND THIS EVIL SUBJECTS, EVEN SONS OF THE VICTIMS. JUST TO BE LIKED BY THE COLONIZERS.
ASK YOUR SELF, WHY DID THE FRENCHCAMEROUN
BANDITS NOT ROB ,BANKS IN DOUALA? OR NEARBY FRENCH CAMEROUN OWNED BANKS IN VICTORIA,? YOU KNOW. THE STATE OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS HAD RESERVES IN MILLIONS OF POUNDS IN 1961? IN MARKETING BOARD, POWERCAM. PWD. PORT AUTHORITY ETC, WHAT HAPPENED WITH OUR MONEYS? THE SAME FRENCH CAMEROUN BANDITS STOLE EVERY THING AWAY.
THATS ANOTHER WAY TO WEAKEN US AND IMPOVERISH US. SOO, THE ILLEGAL COLONIZATION OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS BY FRENCH CAMEEROUN IS TIE TO EVERY THING THAT HAPPEN IN SOUTHERN CAMEROONS ,YOU CAN SEOERATE THAT, SINCE THEY ARE THE ONES IN
CONTROL OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS, IF YOU WANT TO SEE VICTORIA, BOOM, EXPRESSWEAYS LINKING VICTORIA AND KUMBA TO MAMFE ANDBAMENDA, THEN YOU WOULD BE CRAZY TO NOT
TO SUPPORT WITHALL YOUR HEART THE COMPLETE
CONTROL AND INDEPEDENCE OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS AKA AMBAZONIA .

[akamembulle]

The sad news of this armed banditism in our long time comfortable and touristic town is so hard to come to terms. There are so many unanswered questions surrounding the whole event and I personally strongly blieve it will not be an act of exageration if one directly point an accussing fingers to the regime. The pre-modial objective of every government in the world is to safeguard the security of its citizens and those duelling in it.Something the Cameroon government has vehemently failed to do.The appointment of ministers and directors into various positions should be a matter of merits and not how patriotic,loyal or so attached an individual is towards the Head of State.Unfortunately this is what is currently happening in Cameroon where people are appointed into government positions not because they aquire the necessary skills and abilities but judging on how patriotic, loyal and how often an individual attend CPDM rallies and singing Mr Biya's praises.This has massively resulted to a profound deficiency, corruption and mediocrecy in government structures.
It is very rediculous and an abject display of ignorance and narrow minded that a so-called government minsiter of Defence will boldly announce that the government was tipped about the occurence of the said armed robbery, without telling the Cameroonian people the kind of solid precautionary measures he put in place to counter such banditism.Rather he stupidly and shallow mindedly transfers his dismal failures to the banks security lapses.Whose responsibilities is there to provide security around the banks and its environs?
Where were the marines that have got the prime duty to patrol national waters? least to mention the so-called Rapid Inervention Units who are merely stationed at Man-O War Bay not even to talk of the police and the gendarmerie who are just a stone through the Beach. Cameroonians will be delighted if they are informed of the citeria followed by the government to award medals, epaulettes and ranks to their officers.A general,National Police Delegate or minister of Defence is some one whose instructions places his elements at alert at any hour, whether day or night.The Limbe incident has therefore unequivocally exposed the Cameroon security lapses.It will serve the people of Cameroon great justice if Mr Ze Meka, National Police Delegate, The Generals for infantry and that of Marine Nationale all tender their immdiate resignations.Failure for which the CPDM should drastically be punished in the on comming presidential elections.You can't be talking of a comfortable home when one of your child is sick. A lack of proper security in Limbe is a lack of proper security in the entire Cameroon.
Our greatest fear is that let they not come back tomorrow and inform us that Amity Bank is heading towards liquidation. Our poor parents and tax payers wil always become the victimes.
God help liberate my people from these unscrupulous so-called policy makers in Cameroon.

[Mindo]

Cameroon beefs up security on Gulf of Guinea coast (Reuters)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...
The September 28 attack on the town of Limbe shocked the central African oil producer and triggered calls for urgent measures to defend its 360 km (225-mile) coastline.

It was at least the third sea-borne raid of its kind in less than a year on Gulf of Guinea neighbours of Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, where the government is fighting a war against Niger Delta militants who often use fast launches to attack.

Equatorial Guinea and Benin have reported similar raids.

Speaking during a visit to Limbe on Sunday, Cameroon's prime minister, Ephraim Inoni, said the raid had surprised the country's security forces, who he said were under-staffed and poorly equipped to deal with such a threat from the sea.

"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.

Inoni said the government had decided to put in place similar reinforced maritime brigades at Douala, the country's main port, and at Kribi in the south, the export terminal for the 170,000-barrel per day Chad-Cameroon crude oil pipeline.

It had bought speedboats for additional coastal patrols.

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.
...
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE49C0S1.html

[Ma Mary]

The Camerounese occupation regime in the Southern Cameroons is engaged in the exercise of extraction of resources for its own benefit. Protection of the Southern Cameroons people is not of priority.

The purpose of all that fire power on Southern Cameroons occupied territory is to silence dissent and independence movements. Case in point, the vigorous and brutal fashion with with these same forces that turned their tails and ran in Victoria treated peaceful elderly Southern Cameroonian activists less than a week ago.

Case in point, the violent crackdown by Camerounese forces on unarmed Southern Cameroonian students demonstrating at the University of Buea.

According to Dibussi's account, these forces were nowhere to be found when an armed group showed up in Victoria.

This is essentially a hopeful sign because it indicates that a well-armed and motivated Southern Cameroons army should be able to send this occupation army with its hifalutin acronyms parking.

[The Southwesterner]

Ma Mary,
I agree with you, the success of such an operation raises a HUGE question as to the effectiveness of our security network.

But again, what makes you HOPE that a splintered movement can run a well-armed and motivated wing?

Who is dreaming? YOU or I

[dango tumma]

southeasterner
again who can prove that a splintered movement cannot run a well armed and motivated movement? no body
ypu are the dreamer, that the status quo
must be maintain at all cost.

[Ma Mary]

Southwesterner, the splintering to which you refer is more illusory than real. I would of course, not reveal to you right here the simple solution. The insertion of that solution into play is just be a simple matter of time, and when that happens, folks like yourself would line up for roles.

[Martine]

Cameroon says pirates repulsed in border peninsula
Sun 19 Oct 2008, 17:15 GMT

[-] Text [+] By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Cameroon's security forces beat back an attack by pirates in waters off the Bakassi peninsula bordering Nigeria at the weekend, sinking one of their speedboats, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

An armed group that says it is fighting for compensation for Nigerian settlers of Bakassi forced to leave the peninsula when it was handed back to Cameroon in August, said its fighters were involved in Saturday's clash near Jabane.

Africa's top oil producer Nigeria formally handed over control of Bakassi to Cameroon in line with a 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) order. The peninsula is reported to have significant untapped oil reserves.

The little-known Niger Delta Defence and Security Council (NDDSC), which has claimed previous attacks this year on Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, denied the defence ministry's assertion that one of its boats was sunk in the gunfight.

"None of our boys was hurt, all our boats returned safely to base," NDDSC commander Ebi Dari told Reuters. He said the Cameroonian soldiers had opened fire first on the group.

Cameroon's defence ministry said no casualties were reported on the Cameroon army side.

About 50 people have been killed in violence in Bakassi in the past year, including attacks on Cameroonian soldiers.

Dari repeated a threat by the NDDSC to make Bakassi "ungovernable" and turn it into "another Darfur" if Cameroon did not release two of its fighters captured in July and pay compensation to Nigerians forced to leave the territory following the handover to Cameroon on August 14.

Before this, 90 percent of the population in the Bakassi peninsula, estimated at 200,000 to 300,000, were Nigerian fishermen and their families. Bakassi leaders and Nigerian lawmakers say they do not want to become Cameroonians.

Nigeria has offered to resettle them.

Nigeria and Cameroon fought over Bakassi in 1994. The ICJ gave Bakassi to Cameroon in a 2002 ruling, based largely on a 1913 treaty between former colonial powers Britain and Germany.

Saturday's clash occurred a week after the Gulf of Guinea neighbours agreed to work together to protect their land and sea border from raids by militants and pirates and to fight illegal trafficking of arms, drugs, oil products and migrants.

Authorities in Nigeria 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. Gunmen in speedboats in late September attacked the coastal town of Limbe, robbing four banks and killing one person. Equatorial Guinea and Benin have reported similar seaborne raids over the last year

Worried about insecurity, the navies of the United States, which imports more than 15 percent of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea, and other Western countries have stepped up visits to the area. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Matthew Jones)

[red flag]

does a president have a right to unilaterally wake up one morning and say ,
np i want the name of this or that town to be called this or that?
i dont think soo, especially without the vote of the own people, the issue of a town concerns the town people and not any president, soo paul biya is just a racist who is simplying implementing his frenchification to british southern cameroons, to eradicate our heritage,
he said this in france, and did it in NYOS, HE CUT OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LENGTH TO SIX, OUR ANGLOSAXONN HERITAGE WHICH HE OR HIS FRENCH ADVISERS HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF, BUT ARE WICKEDLY FULLY IN HOLDEN TIGHT. FOR TOTAL DESTRUCTION,
THIS ISNT CULTURAL GENOCIDE WHAT IS IT? WHATS SOUTHERN CAMEROONS WITHOUT THE NAME VICTORIA?
OUR BUEA ARCHIVE HAD BEEN LOOTED AND MANY HISTORICAL DOCUMENT BURNT BY AHIJO AND BIYA. HOW CAN ANY EDUCATED MAN ON THIS PLANET REFUTE SUCH PAINFUL ACTS AND SAY TO LEAVE IT FOR ANOTHER DAY?
PAUL BIYA , AHIJO AND HIS FRENCHIES ARE
A BORN IN THE ASS OF BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS, THERE ARE A CANCER ON OUR LUNGS. THEY ARE THE MONSTER THATS STANDING ON OUR WAY? HOW CAN A PEOPLE STAY FOR 45 YEARS WITHOUR BOARDING A PLANE ON THEIR SOIL TO LONDON OR ANOTHER COUNTRY, SOMETHING THEY HAD BEEN DOING BEFORE? BECAUSE PAUL BIYA AND AHIJO SAYS NO. PEOPLE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE. THERE IS NOTHING DANGERIOUS THAN TO DECIEVE YOURSELF...

[UnitedstatesofAmerica]

@ red flag

You forgot to type in CAPS LOCK? I can see how you started in small letters and then frantically switched to bold. Hahahahahahha

You are truly a madman.

[red flag]

Since one make a typo error. he automatically became a mad man....
thats the french-cameroun mindset of yours
I wont call you a mad man for all your nonsense you have been posting here, but
you surelly cant compare your intellect with mine.