Palm oil
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The group of the Breton billionaire is targeted by a legal action initiated by 145 residents of Socapalm, an indirect subsidiary of the Bolloré group. Believing themselves to be victims of violations of their rights, they demanded the publication of documents attesting to the links between the Bolloré group and its subsidiaries. Justice refused.
Is Vincent Bolloré responsible for the violations of human rights and environmental degradation of which several subsidiaries of his group in Africa are accused? To this question, the businessman has taken care, since the construction of his empire on the continent, to answer in the negative, by relying on the system of Russian dolls set up to manage his African activities.
The latest example is the legal action taken in September by 145 Cameroonians, residents of the Cameroonian palm grove company, Socapalm. The company, which produces palm oil, is owned by the Rubber Finance Company, Socfin. The latter, domiciled in the Netherlands, is 38.75% owned by the Bolloré group. However, for several years, residents and employees of Socapalm, as well as NGOs, have denounced the company’s practices: degraded working conditions, environmental pollution, expropriation of local populations, etc. Everyone believes that Socapalm’s activities violate human rights and degrade the environment. “The establishment of this plantation and the way in which it is exploited deprive them of their ancestral lands…