Palm oil giant Socapalm still planting on disputed land in Cameroon as villagers seek redress

A land dispute between residents of a Cameroonian village and a major palm oil company remains unresolved despite protests and requests for meetings with authorities, NGOs and community members say. Residents of Apouh village in the country’s Littoral region have long accused Socapalm, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin, of encroaching on their ancestral land to establish its oil palm plantation. In late March this year, residents protested against Socapalm replanting oil palms on contested land, insisting it should be returned to them as part of a land retrocession process. The protests took a violent turn when deployed police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Cameroonian NGO AFRISE, which represents the women of the Édéa region where Apouh village is located, has si