Flood distrupts development in Cameroon

Extreme weather has severely
damaged infrastructure on Cameroon's Bakassi Peninsula,
threatening the intense development efforts undertaken
since the long-contested area was ceded to the country.
Weeks of rainfall, accompanied by high tides near the
coastal border with Nigeria, have triggered heavy floods in
virtually all villages on the peninsula, submerging houses
and forcing the population to flee for safety.
Environmentalists blame the flooding not only on the
weather but also on the destruction of mangrove forests -
crucial to shoreline protection - by the area's growing
population.
"The floods in the Bakassi villages of Akwa, Kombo
Abedimo, Isangele and Idabato have been quite damaging,
submerging most of the houses and infrastructure, making
life in the area practically impossible and constituting a big
danger to humans and property," Bernard Okalia, governor
of the country's Southwest Region, said on state television
on July 10.
The resource-rich peninsula, together with the 1,600km-
long (1,000-mile) border area between Cameroon and
Nigeria extending from Lake Chad to the Gulf of Guinea, was
long a bone of contention between the two countries,
culminating in military confrontations in the early 1990s.
A decision by the International Court of Justice in October
2002 handed the peninsula to Cameroon. With the help of
the United Nations, the dispute was resolved peacefully with
the signing of the Greentree Peace Accord in August 2006.
Cameroon assumed full control of the oil-rich peninsula on
the African Atlantic Gulf of Guinea a year ago. In an attempt
to stamp its full sovereignty on the area, the government
has been working to improve the lot of the peninsula's
inhabitants by constructing schools, health centres and
administrative buildings, as well as providing fishing
infrastructure and other basic needs that had been lacking.
But many of these projects have been damaged or
destroyed by the recent flooding, officials said.
DISTRAUGHT FISHERMEN
"The Bakassi community is virtually cut off from the rest of
the country, with the bad state of its earth roads making
movement practically impossible, especially during the
rainy season," said Aboko Patrick Anki, mayor of Kombo
Abedimo.
"Now with the heavy floods, things have just got out of hand
and life is difficult," he added.
Local residents say it's the first time they have seen such
extreme weather conditions.
"We have been having floods here in Bakassi, especially
when there are high tides, but never of this magnitude. I
have lost all my fishing equipment," said a tearful John
Effim, a fisherman in Isangele village.
The government says it has asked the peninsula's more
than 300,000 residents, who are mainly fisherfolk, to leave
the zone for nearby Mundemba town to the north. Others -
mostly Nigerian fishermen - have fled to Nigeria.
"We have provided temporary lodging in Mundemba town
for the displaced people," Governor Okali said.
MANGROVES CUT DOWN
Environmentalists blame the situation on the persistent
exploitation of mangrove forests by local communities.
According to staff at the Centre for Environment and Rural
Transformation (CERUT), an NGO based in Limbe, almost
half the mangrove trees on the riverbanks of the peninsula
have been cut down.