Chinese 'kidnapped off Cameroon'

Five Chinese fishermen have been kidnapped off Cameroon's coast, reports from the West African country say.

Security sources say the attack happened off the Bakassi Peninsula, an area ceded by Nigeria to Cameroon last year after a 15-year dispute.

A spokesperson for the rebel Bakassi Freedom Fighters has blamed gunmen from the Nigerian oil town of Port Harcourt.

But the main militant group in Nigeria's Niger Delta denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said he was unaware of the incident.

Correspondents say that insecurity is spreading from the Niger Delta, where oil production has been slashed over the last few years owing to the activity of militants.

Many international trawlers - some licensed, others not, fish off the coast of West Africa.