Deal #1999

Communities in Lokutu, Yaligimba, and Boteka in DRC, forcibly displaced first in 1911 by the Belgian colonial authorities to establish oil palm plantations, face acute hardships today

ancestral land

Community leaders say the land was taken from them illegally and that they never gave their consent for Feronia to operate there and did not agree to the negotiated terms. Community members wish to start the negotiation phase with the company. On March 8, 2015, over 60 customary chiefs and other community leaders gathered in the town of Mozité to call for the resolution of their longstanding grievances against Feronia. In late October/early November representatives from the company visited the local communities and heard their concerns.

The local community state that the land was illegally taken from them and reject the project. The communities claim that the title deeds for the land are falsified to represent Feronia as the legal owners. One report states that the community suffer from intimidation from the police if they protest against the project. The company response to intimidation is that the company has a whistleblower policy in place and is developing a community grievance mechanism. The community is fighting back, claiming their lands back. In October 2015, 12 leaders from communities affected by the plantations met in Kampala to discuss actions which can be taken in order to get their land back. NGO's and civil society organizations were also at the meeting. The leaders established a new alliance of communities affected by Feronia. on May 24 and 25, 2018, the Lokutu people protested vigorously against the recent cases of abuse committed by the new armed security company TANGANYIKA. peace agreements had been signed in August 2017. However, the PHC - FERONIA had unilaterally renounced the implementation of these agreements. Conflict persists in 2021 after four community members were arrested during a march protesting against the new boss Mr Mpinga.

Violence flared up again in March 2019 where community protested against the expansion of plantations onto their land and unpaid wages. Police were brought in and live bullets were flying around. Congolese communities affected by the palm oil business were forcibly displaced. In 2022, it ws reported that the relations between PHC/KKM2 and the communities surroundings have improved. As proof, the numbers of cases of aggression have significantly decreased or even disappeared in recent years. In Lokutu, in Tshopo Province, where PHC has its largest oil palm plantation concession. In mid-September the company suddenly issued a ban on the possession of palm oil by villagers in its concession area. Beyond the financial and governance issues, the company’s operations have negatively impacted local communities, who suffer from land deprivation and violent harassment by PHC security forces. The mediation process aimed at addressing these issues is on the verge of collapse due to non-cooperation from SKKM2.

The company prevents local people from raising livestock or farming within the company's concession, even on lands that the company has abandoned. Community members caught by company guards carrying just a few nuts fallen from the oil palms are fined or, in many cases, whipped, hand cuffed and taken to the nearest prison. One report states that the number of displaced villagers are 45000.

Mwingi community denounced Feronia's practice of abandoning polluting industrial waste in their village of Yalifombo. Workers in the plantations have been exposed to dangerous pesticides, which causes serious health problems. Feronia company has taken all the topsoil, to the point where the community is left without land to cultivate. In parts of the three plantations, residents said their drinking water has been contaminated by PHC activities. According to testimonies by local villagers provided to RIAO-RDC, the contingent of soldiers, police and guards went on a rampage through the local villages searching for evidence of theft. Villagers that RIAO interviewed allege that they broke into homes, arrested people arbitrarily, damaged property and committed numerous other human rights violations. There are allegations that they physically beat and tortured villagers, shot and injured several villagers, raped village women and burnt down people’s homes. The villagers say there was no possible justification for such a large-scale crack-down. A 2019 Human Rights Watch report detailed how Feronia had abused the rights of local communities this includes routinely dumping untreated industrial waste, which contaminated a major supply of local drinking water, amongst others.It was also reported that company security staff “forcefully repressed opposition through murder, unlawful detention, beatings and torture” As the legal cases unfold, violence perpetrated by PHC plantation security guards has continued unabated. On February 15, 2021, Blaise Mokwe, a 33-year old villager, was falsely accused of stealing palm fruit from the plantation and beaten by PHC security guards. He died from his injuries a few days later. The same month, 20-year old Efolafola Nisoni Manu and another young man were accused of stealing plastic chairs from the plantation by security guards who reportedly sent soldiers to arrest them. While being transferred to prison in a PHC-owned motorized canoe, the two young men were allegedly handcuffed and beaten. According to local sources, Efolafola Nisoni Manu was then thrown into the water and killed. Following the press release published on 12/01/2021 in the context of denouncing acts of torture, repeated violations of human rights and aggravated assault and battery resulting in the death of a man The latter fired live ammunition at the poor workers and at least two workers were shot and seriously injured. In January 2022, RIAO-RDC reported Police and military fire live ammunition at striking PHC workers at Boteka plantation Based on testimonies gathered during field research from the community staying on the Feronia concession and how they experience and fight against the company. They have accounted repression and heavy-handed responses by the security services, which highlight the dangers faced by those defending their land, their livelihoods and the environment. Livelihoods are severely impacted — hunger and poverty are widespread while the dumping of untreated industrial waste has polluted a major source of drinking water. Having lost their lands and reduced to working as laborers on the plantations, community members face poor wages and unsafe working conditions. An independent investigation carried out in September 2021 brought to light the escalation of violence against community members. On September 14, soldiers and PHC security guards reportedly looted and destroyed dozens of homes, tortured and kidnapped villagers from communities surrounding the plantations. On January 8, 2022, after a group of workers at the Boteka plantation went on strike to protest poor wages, PHC called in the police and military who opened fire on the protesters, seriously wounding two workers. On November 9, 2022, RIAO received an alarming report that one of the community leaders from Lokutu who was arrested died while being transported by boat to the Kinsangani prison. RIAO is demanding an urgent investigation into this possible crime by the DRC government.

Unilever originally promised to hand one plantation out of every three back to the community.

No compensation has been paid to date (2015). Communities are demanding that compensation occurs.

The company has also spent over $7 million on medical and educational facilities and on clean water provision since 2013. Feronia announced at the end of 2014 that it wanted to "engage with local communities in the development of new facilities meet their daily needs". To date the communities have not seen any of the stated benefits. US$3.6m has been ring-fenced to support the company to strengthen business standards and enhance community facilities -- this includes: refurbishment of the housing and sanitation available to workers; a road maintenance program to update the infrastructure on Feronia land that all local people can use; appointing new health & safety staff and community relations managers; undertaking a comprehensive study of the needs of workers and the local community; a new grievance procedure for workers and community; and land mapping to clearly mark out where the company's land extends. Community homes, schools, clinics and roads are in awful condition, and contrary to what Feronia maintains, no newinfrastructureorworker homes havebeen built. The company signed a specification with the customary chiefs of these territories of Tshopo on 22 November 2017 regarding their socio-economic projects. PHC provides, and is in the process of further restoring and developing, extensive social infrastructure, including health facilities, employee housing, schools, water supplies and roads at each of its three plantation sites. P.H.C group KKM2 which, after one year of its operation in R.D. Congo, has succeeded in attracting its workers and local communities by focusing its attention on social well-being; by supporting its work on school, sanitary, road infrastructure, worker housing, social clauses, relations between society and local communities, community support through the creation of the OPA, a good Recruitment of staff with a high rate of local work, a good remuneration of staff also equipped, with a quality sanitary charge.

Yalifombo believed that, according to the timetable of Feronia's promises, the school and the dispensary should already be built. "They said that they will build roads, hospitals ... It's been 2 or 3 years now and after Feronia has done nothing about these things, "says Pierre Kumyele.

The local communities are requesting the mediation of DEG (German development bank which co-finances Feronia) to find a real solution to the conflict between communities and this multinational. The nine communities filed their complaint with the DEG's complaints mechanism on Monday, November 5, 2018. The nine communities are being represented by the Congolese NGO RIAO-RDC, and are supported by an alliance of international organisations and NGOs from countries with development banks involved in financing Feronia. On October 19, 2022 a delegation of two RIAO-RDC members arrived in Boteka to gather evidence regarding local community abuse by government officials and to try and find a peaceful resolution to the situation. However, when they arrived at the local company offices, they were informed by the local staff that they would not be received since they had entered the company’s plantations without permission In 2021.the member of the Congolese environmental and human rights organisation RIAO-RDC recommend that the Congolese authorities and those in charge of Western development banks who finance PHC / FERONIA / KKM as well as their respective governments to get involved in repairing the harm caused , by releasing 12 community leaders from Mindua, Bolesa and Mwingi villages who are detained and abandoned in Yangambi prison. RIAO-RDC also demands international investigation after another villager dies at the hands of guards In November 2019, A new report by a prominent rights group has accused four European development banks of failing to protect workers on palm oil plantations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from being exposed to hazardous pesticides and being paid very low wages, driving the levels of “extreme poverty. On April 30, 2024, in Kinshasa, environmental defenders were arrested and a journalist was abducted during a peaceful protest against Plantation et Huilerie du Congo (PHC). The protesters demanded the establishment of a board of directors for PHC and raised issues about the mistreatment of local communities