YAOUNDE - FIVE Chinese people have been kidnapped off the Bakassi peninsula in south Cameroon, bordering on Nigeria, according to a report on Tuesday in Le Jour daily, and another source.

The kidnapping reported in the newspaper was confirmed to AFP by a source close to the case, who said that the five Chinese work in the fisheries sector, but was unable to give more details.

Le Jour, quoting a Nigerian source, said the Chinese were captured while on a trawler and 'probably (abducted) by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),' which is the main armed group active in Nigeria's oil-rich southern provinces.

A Cameroon government official said he was unaware of the case and by the end of the day no comment could be had from the Chinese embassy in Yaounde.

In the past year, there has been an increase in attacks at sea in the region off the Bakassi peninsula, which was conceded by Nigeria to Cameroon in August last year after a 15-year border dispute.

The region is potentially rich in oil and natural gas resources.

MEND, which emerged in 2006 in Nigeria's southern oil hub, has been accused of being behind a spate of abductions, mostly of foreign oil workers, the theft of crude oil, extortions and destruction of oil facilities in the region. -- AFP