Cameroon

Communities in the Apouh à Ngog region of Edéa, Cameroon, continue to resist the violence of the Socapalm company (a subsidiary of SOCFIN) and heavily armed soldiers who seek to prevent the community from recovering a portion of their ancestral lands for food crops, after years of occupation by industrial oil palm plantations. International and national opinion must be vigilant and keep an eye on this situation. 

On March 25, the palm oil company Socapalm, a subsidiary of the multinational Socfin-Bolloré, carried out a violent operation with security forces against a rural community that is demanding the return of its lands, in Apouh A Ngog village, in the Litoral Region of Cameroon. In an open letter, more than 50 organizations from different countries demanded that the country's authorities investigate and stop these atrocities and find an inmidate solution in favour of the community.

The just-released “Mouila Declaration” is a message of resistance, solidarity and unity from communities and grassroots organisations of the Informal Alliance against the expansion of Industrial Monocultures.

The company is in the process of renewing part of its oil palm plantations in Edéa. At the end of last year, communities started to mobilize against this process. The community resistance has led the sub-prefect to request Socapalm to stop its activities. This is a first victory of the community but the struggle will continue until SOCAPALM returns the lands to the communities!

Several articles in the current bulletin report about community struggles against old and new forms of extractivism that threaten the territories and livelihoods of communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. For this reason, we recommend the rereading of an interview with the WRM Advisory Committee member Nasako Besingi, from Cameroon, about the challenges communities face.

Press release. SOCAPALM, a subsidiary of Socfin, must immediately cease replanting operations at Edea 1, in Cameroon.

The Afrise women's association launched an international petition to stop the replanting of oil palm monocultures around their homes and over the grave sites of their ancestors. They are denouncing decades of sexual abuse, land dispossession and misery. They are demanding that their territory be returned to them, so that they can lead a life of dignity.

The Afrise women's association launched an international petition to stop the replanting of oil palm monocultures around their homes and over the grave sites of their ancestors. Here we share the testimony of the president of Afrise.

Sign this petition against the replanting of oil palm by Socapalm (Socfin/ Bolloré) in the vicinity of the homes and tombs of the neighbouring village Apouh à Ngog, in Edea-Cameroon.

The Informal Alliance Against the Expansion of Industrial Oil Palm Plantations in West and Central Africa released a declaration to keep breaking the silence of the many abuses around industrial plantations and to reaffirm their strong commitment to resist their expansion in the defence of their territories and lives.

Communities in West and Central Africa are facing the impacts of industrial oil palm plantations. With the false promise of bringing ‘development’, corporations, backed up with government support, have been granted millions of hectares of land for this expansion.

Patriarchal oppression is inseparable from the industrial plantation model, and it is at the base of how companies generate profits. Companies target women, including due to their fundamental role in community life.