Cameroon holds 3 Eq. Guinea soldiers in border spat

By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Cameroon's authorities have detained three marines from Equatorial Guinea after complaints by local fishermen of persecution by soldiers from the neighbouring state, a senior military officer said on Friday.

The Cameroonian officer, who asked not be named, said the three soldiers were being held at the southern port of Kribi.

They were detained after Cameroonian naval forces at Kribi received information that three local fishermen from the Rio Campo border settlement had been seized by Equatorial Guinean troops on Tuesday and taken away in a helicopter.

Cameroon's navy "immediately mounted a riposte off the Cameroon coast which culminated in the capture of the three marines," the officer said.

There was no immediate reaction from the government of Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer, whose Gulf of Guinea territory includes an island-based capital, Malabo, and a mainland portion that borders Cameroon.

Cameroonian media have reported tension mounting on the southern border following the death last month of a Cameroonian fisherman, Guillaume Penda.

The Cameroonian officer said Penda had died in "suspicious circumstances" and that one of the detained Equatorial Guinea marines was suspected of involvement. But he did not elaborate.

In protest, Cameroonian villagers in the southern border region had barricaded roads leading to Equatorial Guinea.