Resistance against industrial oil palm plantations in West and Central Africa
For many decades, communities in West and Central Africa have been facing industrial oil palm plantations encroaching onto their community land. With the false promise of bringing ‘development’ and jobs, corporations, backed up by the support of the governments, have been granted millions of hectares of land under concessions for industrial oil palm plantations.
The results of this expansion have been disastrous for communities living in and around these industrial plantations and, in particular, for women.
In response, grassroots organisations and community leaders from across the region have been organizing, mobilizing, raising their voices, and networking among each other to stop this destructive and violent occupation of their land. At the heart of these struggles is the community desire to get their lands back. Exchanges with community activists involved in similar struggles helps
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The host communities of Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc in Ovia South-West Local Government Area of Edo State, over the weekend held a peaceful protest against what they tagged marginalisation and ill-treatment and water pollution by the oil palm company.
The protesters, who were drawn from the host communities such as Gbelebu, Safargbo, Okomu, Oweike and Maikolo, carried placards bearing various inscriptions such as “Govt tell Okomu Oil Company to open our road”, “Okomu Oil Company give us our fishing traps that are with you”; “Stop polluting our stream with your agrochemical, it is our only source of drinking water”; “We are not terrorists, Stop harassing us with military, Okomu Oil,” accused the company of using military personnel to block the only road that links them to Udo.