NKOTENG, Cameroon — 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, a Cameroonian town north of Yaoundé, the nation’s capital. 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, which manufactures and markets food commodities and runs six sugar cane plantations across Africa. The accident that cost Olomo his life is one of many that have occurred at SOSUCAM. Accidents are countless on the company’s plantations in Nkoteng and Mbandjock, where the company grows sugar cane on nearly 25,000 hectares (61,776 acres) of agricultural land. A recent report by the company’s seasonal workers’ union revealed that about a hundred work accidents occurred on the company’s plantations between November 2022 and June 2023. Last April, a vehicle transporting workers and moving at high speed overturned on the Nkoteng plantation, injuring 35 people, two of whom were seriously injured. A seasonal worker (a cane cutter) on the SOSUCAM sugar cane plantation in Nkoteng. Image by Yannick Kenné. In Cameroon, the government encourages the expansion of industrial agriculture companies considering them to play an essential role in development. The government also believes that they…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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