(Ecofin Agency) - Ivorian director for rural land, Constant Delbé Zirignon, revealed during a workshop on conflicts prevention in agro-industrial areas held on March 30, 2016 in Abidjan, that around 11,000 hectares of land had been awarded to the Prikro rubber company (CHP in French), subsidiary of the Belgian group SIAT (Société d’Investiseement poir l’agriculture tropicale). This was reported by news website Eburnie Today.

Situtated at Famienkro, in the Central part of Cote d’Ivoire, the lands concerned are currently disputed by the government, which claims it secured them in 1979 when the Sérébou-Comoé former sugar complex (run by the Société d’Etat Société pour le Développement du Sucre – SODESUCRE) was being established, and local communities who invoke their customary property right and denounce spoliation.

“These lands were registered in the name of the State and thus have no customary right associated. Legally, there can be no customary right on a registered land. We went to court with some of Famienkro’s villagers, those from this zone that is, and we told them that these lands had become the property of the State and that in respect to the 2013 Act, the State had the right to get this area registered and that is exactly what it did. These lands were given to the Ministry of Agriculture to develop agriculture, and since administrative acts were issued, the lands therefore became patent lands. So what we did is we registered the land and we concluded an emphyteutic lease with the agro-industry which was established there,” the rural land director affirmed.

In response to this, Sinan Ouattara, spokesperson to the king of Famienkro, declared: “the Government has no document”.

Truth is the executive so far showed no document proving that it acquired the land from the Famienkro people. It also failed to effectively prove that it has purged customary rights of land owners.

Souha Touré