On May 24, 2024, clashes broke out between members of a local community and security guards at an oil palm plantation in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the latest such incident in a long-running dispute over some 58,000 hectares, or 143,000 acres, of land. A source in the town of Lokutu said the community members were protesting the decision by the company, Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), to appoint someone from another community as team leader of plantation security. “The protestors refused … given that outsiders are cruel and mistreat them,” the source told Mongabay. According to a press release published on PHC’s website, nine people were arrested and taken to the police station for questioning following the incident. Clashes between local communities and PHC’s guards are common at its plantations in the DRC, and have even led to the deaths of several villagers in recent years. Communities living near PHC plantations are demanding the return of just over 58,000 hectares of land, and are seeking access to the company’s land titles to determine the boundaries of its concessions. PHC, part of the investment fund Straight KKM2 (KKM) and owned by New York-based investment management company Kuramo Capital Management, holds more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land in the areas of Lokutu, Yaligimba and Boteka, in the northern part of the DRC. Mindonga residents stand on the banks of a stream contaminated by effluent from PHC’s palm oil production plant in Yaligimba in 2019.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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