LIBREVILLE (AFP) — The leader of a rebel group which seized 10 oil workers off the Cameroon coast complained Monday that the Cameroon government had still not made contact over the hostages.
The Bakassi Freedom Fighters (BFF) said they had seized the 10 -- seven French, two Cameroon nationals and a Tunisian -- on a French oil vessel off the Cameroon coast on Friday, but authorities say they are still checking whether the group exists.
"The publicised existence of this famous group ... is not in doubt but now there is a need to check its real existence and to know who is hiding behind it: is it for example a band of traffickers?" a source close to the Cameroonian presidency told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A lot of United Nations missions have been on the ground there but none has found any existence of a group called the BFF," he said.
Ebi Dari, the BFF chief, made no threat to the hostages, but told AFP: "The authorities have still not contacted us. I have been clear: I will keep the hostages as long as the Cameroon government does not contact me and does not speak with me."
Dari insisted that the government was aware of the group's activities. "They do not want to admit there have been skirmishes. We have killed soldiers. They know about our group."
Nigeria handed control of the Bakassi peninsula over to Cameroon this year after a 15 year dispute settled under international arbitration.
The BFF, part of a shadowy Nigerian group dubbed the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council, says people on the peninsula should determine their own future. The BFF claimed responsibility in June and July for attacks that killed seven Cameroon troops and a local official.
The group on Friday threatened to kill the hostages "one by one" unless the government agreed to reopen talks on the oil-rich territory's status.
Nigeria ceded Bakassi to Cameroon in August after a ruling by the International Court of Justice over the peninsula, including rights to its oil fields and fishing grounds.
The handover was completed peacefully, but some local groups opposed the change of sovereignty and threatened attacks.
France has said it was increasingly likely the BFF was holding the 10 hostages, that Paris was in touch with the owner of the vessel and the Cameroonian authorities and was watching developments. But the French authorities are saying as little as possible.
The French ambassador to Cameroon was reported Monday to have spent 40 minutes discussing the affair with President Paul Biya.
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