Nigeria and Cameroon would establish joint military patrol and intelligence sharing to combat increasing militancy at the Bakassi Peninsula, a top officer with the Nigerian Navy said Friday.

The West African nation’s Chief of Naval Staff, vice Adm. Usman Jubrin, said in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, that the move was aimed at checkmating piracy and oil theft in both nations’ territorial waters.

The UN designation of the area as demilitarized zone was partly responsible for the militants’ continued perpetration of illegal acts in the peninsula on the African Atlantic Gulf of Guinea, he added.

Jubrin told his audience that Nigeria has recently acquired two warships and several gunboats, and sponsored the training of officers and ratings to improve the navy’ s proficiency in policing the nation’ s territorial waters.

The navy chief said the warships which were built in China and United States would arrive in the country before the end of 2014 to complement other security agencies’ efforts to combat security challenges facing the nation.