Two internationally-based human rights group say they have obtained documents from multiple sources in and out of Liberia suggesting that Equatorial Palm Oil is shutting down operations in Liberia due to persistent land acquisition conflicts over the last few years.
The two human rights organizations, Malaysia-based Environmental NGOs Friends and Advocates for Community Rights, said they are carefully monitoring the situation at Equatorial Palm Oil Plantation in Grand Bassa County.
In a press statement issued in Monrovia on March 31, 2021, the statement quoted Ma Yong, head of legal defense, as saying, “Our attention has been drawn to reports obtained from multiple sources in and out of Liberia that EPO is shutting down operations in Liberia due to persistent land acquisition conflicts over the last few years.”
The statement said reports obtained from credible sources suggest a massive layoff of workers of the palm oil company, which is creating tension among plantation workers.
“We demand that EPO’s shutdown action plan be in conformity with due compensation settlement to local communities, whose land have been taken and cleared without their consent,” the concerned group said.
According to Environmental NGOs Friends, Jogbahn community members and surrounding villages’ failure to cooperate with EPO’s plan to expand onto community land in 2013 triggered increasingly severe intimidation by company security staff.
The statement also highlighted some EPO’s personnel driving through villages at night, flashing their emergency lights, which allegedly led to women and children fleeing to the bush. “As the majority shareholder, KLK must make investigating the human rights abuse and land grabbing allegations its number one priority,” the groups’ statement noted.