A Cameroonian passenger boat was attacked by pirates this week in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean, dpa quoted local media as reporting today. The attack, which occurred on Tuesday in Cameroonian waters, left one woman dead and four other passengers critically injured. The ship, called the Monica, was on its way from Limbe in Cameroon to Calabar in Nigeria. One of the survivors remembered hearing gunshots just before the boat was boarded by 12 pirates near Abana, a town at the frontier between Cameroon and Nigeria. "We heard some loud shots coming from the side of the boat," the survivor reportedly said. "Women started to shout and scream because they saw two inflatable boats." Hearing the passengers' screams, nearby fishermen notified the police, who rushed to the rescue. The pirates fled with an undisclosed amount of money and property belonging to passengers after the attack, which lasted almost 30 minutes. The female victim, who was headed to Nigeria on a business trip, bled to death shortly after the arrival of the police. The four injured passengers were taken to a hospital in Calabar, in Nigeria's Cross River State. This is not the first pirate attack in Cameroonian waters this year. Two months ago, pirates kidnapped a group of foreigners off the coast of Douala. Limbe had also been targeted by pirates earlier, leaving local business operators fearful of travelling by boat to Nigeria. Pirate activity has increased along the coast of Cameroon, following the end of the Bakassi conflict that saw Cameroon pitted against Nigeria over a piece of land rich in petroleum.
