Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), your provisional grant began on the 25th of November 2013 and today November 25 marks the end of your provisional grant. Thus, we the chiefs of Ikoti and Babensi II would like to present our anniversary wishes: May the end of this provisional grant be your END! This would be the best gift that the Cameroonian Government could give to us and our communities for all the illegalities we have encountered during the past three years.

Last October 25th, the chiefs’ representatives of the following seven villages; Ayong, Badun, Babensi I, Babensi II, Nguti, Ebanga, Sikan in Nguti subdivision published a communique exposing the impacts of SGSOC project on our communities and our environment and also gave recommendations to resolve the current situation.

We want to reiterate these valid recommendations to the Presidency as today is the end of this provisional grant and we urge the Government of Cameroon to stop this destructive project.  As expressed several times in our communications and  also picked up by many national and international partners, here are our main reasons for SGSOCs’ to be stopped as expressed in our October 2016 press release:

  1. You have used Illegal and corrupt methods of land acquisition without adequate consultation with the affected communities.

  2. Non respect of the resolutions of the land consultative board minutes by local administration and the company: the village by village consultation, the resolution of existing land use conflicts and the participatory identification and mapping of the area were never done.

  3. Encroachment and destruction of farmlands in villages such as Babensi I and Babensi II that are not part of the 2013 presidential decree.

  4. Presence of several farmlands in the area designated by the decree as SGSOC concession

  5. Destruction and trespassing into several farmlands in other affected communities

  6. Absence of mutual communication and dialogue between the company and communities. Despite efforts of several communities  requesting  dialogue with the company to resolve the existing problems, the company has persistently ignored the communities for the past three years.

We are not forgetting the ex-workers seeking justice for being laid off by you without compensation.

We are only seeking to get back our land and keep what is rightfully ours. We the elders of these communities owe it to our children to pave the way for a future with guaranteed land rights, food security, and living in harmony with nature.

On this black day, we implore the government of Cameroon to make us happy again by putting an end to this grant.  It is most certainly the wrong project in the wrong place.

To you, SGSOC, we say you have overstayed your welcome. Pack up and leave!!!!!

Chief Ejeba Ewane Joseph, Babensi II, Nguti Sub-division
Chief Ekue John Epimba, Ikoti Ngolo, Toko Sub Division