Dja and Lobo Division: Transparency Int’l calls for frank dialogue between SUDCAM, communities to ease tension.

The TI-Cameroon president was speaking during a press conference in Yaounde Tuesday, September 17. 

The press conference at head office of TI-Cameroon, was attended by the Third-Class traditional ruler of Akok village in Meyomessala, His Majesty Ebo Joseph and the women leader from Minko village, Dona Suzanne.

During the presser, he explained that communities in Meyomessala, Meyomessi and Djoum Subdivisions, Dja and Lobo Division in the South Region, are facing a lot of challenges pose by the presence of an agro-industrial giant, Sud Cameroun Hévéa S.A. better known as SUDCAM. 

According to Barrister Henri Njoh, an investigation which they carried out showed a vast potion of their lands has been occupied by the company involved in rubber cultivation. 

Aside this, he noted that the population have been affected on several fronts since the company was established in 2008. 

However, the company is said to have been functioning for decades without a specification document containing its engagement with the communities who are being affected directly by SUDCAM’s activities. 

This has led to an uneasy cohabitation between the industrial giant and the communities who are demanding the company to engage and sign a community-led proposed specification document called convention. 

Barrister Henri Njoh explained that the press conference was organised to present the report of an investigation which they carried out in the concerned localities.

He stressed that this in a bid to promote cohabitation and harmonious living together between the communities and the SUDCAM company.

“This press conference is to encourage a dialogue process between the company and the indigenous communities who are bound to live together. They demand just one thing which is the restoration of dialogue and the taking into consideration of their rights,” he stated.

Enter traditional ruler 

On his part, the traditional ruler of Akok, one of 23 villages in the Meyomessala, impacted by SUDCAM’s activities, said the working relations between the indigenous communities and SUDCAM have deteriorated over the year.

This, he said, is as the company has remained adamant to engage with them a specification document, known in French as Cahier des Charges.

According to the traditional ruler, the specification document formulated by the communities on the recommendation of the administrative authority of the area during his maiden tour, is yet to be approved.

“The first problem the population had with SUDCAM was that when they began work, the population asked for the Cahier de charge which up till date has never been handed to the population or seen by them,” the traditional ruler explained. 

He added that: “Today, we are talking about a convention that was formulated by the local population. This convention was initiated by the current DO of Meyomessala during his contact tour when the population told him about their misunderstandings…”. 

He further narrated that: “We then established a specification document which we call it a convention and proposed to SUDCAM. SUDCAM later modified what they could not do in our proposal and the 23 chiefs of Meyomessala signed it but till now it has not been counter signed by the other parties notably SUDCAM management and local authority”. 

The Third-Class ruler pointed that their intension is not for SUDCAM to leave but to see their relations with SUDCAM be on good terms and their conventions signed.

About IT-Cameroon 

It is worth noting that as part of its mission of fighting against corruption and promotion of good governance, IT-Cameroon has been engaged since 2015, in the land sector through the first phase of the project Land and Corruption in Africa. 

Through investigations and sensitization campaigns, capacity building sessions with stakeholders and judicial assistance to victims and witnesses of corruption acts, IT-Cameroon have contributed to the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance in this sector that is sensitive in our country. 

Since 2022, IT-Cameroon has been engaged in the second phase of the project Land and Corruption in Africa to reinvest in the promotion of equality and access to land ownership, defending the rights of victims, reinforcing the capacities of stakeholders while advocating for a legal and equality framework in the decision-making process.  

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3235 of Friday September 20, 2024