Labor abuse and work accidents on plantations of Cameroon’s largest sugar producer
Summary
Date Reported: 31 Jan 2024
Location: Cameroon
Companies
Somdiaa - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Cameroon , Sugar , Men , Documented migrants ) , Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Cameroon , Sugar , Women , Documented migrants )Issues
Occupational Health & Safety , Deaths , Injuries , Access to Non-Judicial Remedy , Poverty Wages , Restricted access to medicinesResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Somdia responded to the Resource Centre's request for comment, including by outlining its occupational health and safety policies and practices, addressing the accidents mentioned in the article, outlining how it creates sustainable value chains and contributes to the local economy, describing its remuneration policies and practices, including salary increases, and outlining how it contributes to local development including in education and environmental protection.
Source type: News outlet
…At the Cameroon Sugar Corporation (Société Sucriere du Cameroun, SOSUCAM), the year 2023 came to a close on a grim note: the death of a man named Mballa Olomo.
The temporary worker lost his life as a result of burns suffered in a work accident that occurred in December at one of the company’s plants based in Nkoteng…The 43-year-old town native had been a seasonal worker at the industrial agriculture company for about ten years. The company is a subsidiary of the French group SOMDIAA…
These companies are also frequently at odds with the local communities and small-scale farmers…
These conflicts between the industrial agriculture plantations and neighboring communities are continuous, whether it be in Nkoteng or Mbandjock, where SOSUCAM operates, or in Edéa or Dibombari, where the Cameroonian palm oil producer SOCAPALM owns sweeping hectares of land planted with oil palms. The same scenario can be seen in the town of Tibati, where the company Tawfiq Agro Industry, which plans to develop pastoral farms, is located, and in Campo, a town where the company Cameroon Vert (CAMVERT) wants to deforest thousands of hectares of village land to plant oil palms in the Congo Basin…