Photo of Felicite Ngo Bissou. (Photo by Leocadia Bongben)Global Voices | 27 May 2025Land dispute escalates between palm oil company and Cameroon’s Apouh community
by Leocadia Bongben
A palm plantation by the main national road which runs through Apouh. Photo by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
A long-standing land dispute has recently escalated between the agro-industrial company SOCAPALM (Société Camerounaise de Palmeraies), a subsidiary of the European holding company Socfin, and the Indigenous Apouh à Ngog (Apouh) community in Cameroon’s Littoral region. This has reignited debates about the challenges of coexistence between local communities and agro-industrial companies.
SOCAPALM has taken over 90 percent of the land, over 3,700 hectares, since the company took over in 2010. Villagers were forcefully moved from the land without compensation, says Felicite Ngo Bissou, president of the Association des Femmes Riverain de Edea 1 (AFRISE), while village land was divided into numbered plots and turned into palm plantations.
Sandwiched between palm plots along the national road heading to the seaside town of Kribi is Apouh, a settlement of roughly 3,000 people plagued by black flies. The space available is insufficient given the growing population.
Against this backdrop, on March 25, villagers moved onto plot 81 — a disputed area where the women had planted plantains in a bid to reclaim their lands. SOCAPALM removed the plantains and replaced them with old palms. In response, police in combat kits were deployed to the scene, where they used tear gas and brutalized community members.
The plight of the villagers
Photo of Felicite Ngo Bissou. Photo by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
A 46-year-old widow and mother of four, Emmelienne Patience Ndongo, was among those who suffered from police abuse. “My co-wife and I were beaten. We have no land. Look across the road where I farm, close to the trench. We are asking SOCAPALM to provide us with land for farming and for our children to build because there is no space,” Ndongo told Global Voices.
Ndongo said the villagers desperately need land for farming. Felicite Ngo Bissou agrees that plot 81 should be returned to the villagers. In February, AFRISE wrote an open letter to the mother company, Socfin, demanding the return of the villagers’ ancestral land.
His Majesty Dipote Lindoume, third-class chief of Apouh, argued:
"We need to agree with the company on a portion of land that should be given to the community. If this option is proposed, I will sign all the papers. Land belongs to the government. The community and SOCAPALM should have a conversation and propose a solution that makes the government's job easier."
In an email response, Rouselle Barbara Lienoue, the company spokesperson, wrote,
"SOCAPALM is a tenant of the state and not authorized to transfer land to third parties. After revising its leased areas, SOCAPALM plans to hand over to the landowner the areas removed from the lease. Only the state will decide on any potential restitution of the land to communities in need."
An Earthworm Foundation investigation challenges this assertion. The investigation conducted at three sites in 2025, including Edea, confirms that the SOCAPALM site in Edéa, Amendment No. 1 to the lease, provides for the retrocession of 3,712 hectares (9,172.5 acres) of land to decentralized local authorities, meaning that while SOCAPALM abdicates responsibility, they are fully within their rights to return the villagers’ land.
Graves inside the plantation
Apouh's ancestors first settled across the road on fertile land without stones. The colonial masters dislodged them to the present site, and their graves have remained inside the plantation. “There is a family burial ground inside the plantation. We wash ourselves on the graveside following our tradition,” said Janvier Etamane Etamane, notable of the Apouh chiefdom. The Earthworm Foundation confirmed their claims.
The Germans who planted rubber were the first foreign settlers in Apouh. The first company was SProA, followed by the Société des Palmeraies de la Ferme Suisse (SPFS). A merger and acquisition of the Ferme Swiss in 2010 brought in SOCAPALM. Ngo Bissou explained to Global Voices that in the days of Ferme Swiss:
"There was relative peace. The latter provided foodstuffs to the community, and the villagers cultivated 874 hectares of land."
“When did the government give SOCAPALM the space, and how? The population was dislodged from 874 hectares (2,159.7 acres) of land, caterpillars [manufacturing equipment] leveled the space, our farms were gone, and palms were planted,” Ngo Bissou added.
Issues at stake
Over the past three years, tensions increased between the locals and the agro-industry, leading to protests. The community claims that SOCAPALM has grabbed more land than is on the lease. Community members are asking for the return of this land so they can feed their families and earn a living.
The community wrote to the Ministry of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure (MINCAF) to oppose the 874-hectare SOCAPALM concession demand. The community claims the land was forcefully taken and occupied for 16 years, with the company requesting a concession only in 2023. They demand payment of 20 percent royalties.
On September 20, 2023, MINCAF instructed the local authority of the Sanaga Maritime to delimit the boundaries of the disputed land and requested the involvement of traditional authorities in the SOCAPALM concession demand. The community demands that the minister's demarcation orders be followed in line with Cameroon's land laws.
The local government officials handling the matter are at odds with the Apouh community. Members of the Apouh village say they went to Cyrille Yvan Abondo, the divisional officer of the Sanaga Maritime, when tension with SOCAPALM started, but the police chased and scattered them.
During a press conference after the recent protest, the divisional officer accused the Apouh chief of abstaining from tripartite meetings. An accusation, which the chief refutes, saying he attended once and was represented the second time. The local authority has failed to respond to any requests for comment.
The community believes that SOCAPALM is unwilling to find a lasting solution, as several meetings have ended in a stalemate. But the company says otherwise. “… We remain open to discussions and respect the rights of the communities,” the SOCAPALM spokesperson said.
SOCAPALM land titles
The Apouh community, through their chief, wrote to the minister on September 18, 2024, to indicate that SOCAPALM land titles were erroneous and misleading.
"It is beyond understanding that the land title, which dates back to 1960, indicates that the palm plots in front and behind my palace bear the name Dehane (a different village) — while I have a land title that bears Apouh."
Lindoume disputes Abondo's assertion during the press conference that Apouh did not exist in 1960, stating, “Instead, in 1960, Dehane did not exist. Dehane is a village established in the rubber plantation, English Farm (Ferme Anglais), in 1972. Dehane was a periodical market called Kongue — the name of the ferry that transported people across the Nyong River,” Lindoume told Global Voices.
SOCAPALM, on its part, stated:
"We inherited land titles from the merger and absorption of Ferme Swiss, which have not undergone any modifications since 1960, and given that, by acquisition, land titles are invariable, definitive, and unassailable, they cannot be considered false."
The company invited the Apouh community to verify their authenticity from the relevant administration.
However, the community claims the company has appropriated more land than is on the lease. SOCAPALM acknowledges various reports highlighting minor encroachments by the company and numerous encroachments by third parties.
Apouh is one of many communities in Cameroon where cohabitation with agro-industries is difficult due to poor planning, obsolete land laws, and colonial-era land theft.
Stella Tchoukep, Greenpeace Africa Campaigner, told Global Voices that land disputes undermine investment and social development. She instead urged local authorities “to prioritize the land needs of the local population.”
Tchoukep sees in the drafting of a land policy and land law reforms, which have been in the works since 2011 “as an opportunity to repair the damage and to lay the foundations for a healthy cohabitation between investors and the local communities.”
