(Ecofin Agency) - In a report released last Tuesday and entitled “herakles Farms / Sgsoc : histoire d’un projet d’huile de palme destructeur au Cameroon”, environmental protection NGO Greenpeace International and Oakland Institute, an independent politics-focused think tank, accused the US State department of being involved in a case where 73,000 ha of land, situated in the south western part of Cameroon, were illegally acquired by the American firm Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (Sg-Soc), in 2009.

According to Greenpeace, the US embassy to Cameroon ignored allegations of corruption looming over SG-Soc, the Cameroonian branch of US agro-industrialist Herakles Farms. The firm had indeed come into possession of vast plots of lands (in hectares) to develop palm tree plantation, with only the Minister of Economy’s signed approval, while Cameroon’s law states that only the President of the Republic has such authority once the area concerned is equal to or exceeds 50 ha.

The two NGOs however claim that they have had since the beginning of 2013 information attesting that Herakles “might have” violated US anti-corruption laws. Robert P. Jackson, then US Ambassador to Cameroon, and high officials from the US State Department kept putting pressure on the Cameroonian government on behalf of the firm up till the end of May 2013 (and beyond even).

More incisive, the report reveals that Deputy Secretary to State Department’s Bureau for African Affairs, Cynthia Akuetteh, told Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, that she “hoped that the government would solve the misunderstanding (with Sg-Soc)”, referring to the fact that the government of Cameroon temporarily suspended Sg-Soc’s land-clearing licence, and that it still hadn’t granted the firm a land lease.

During another meeting, Mrs. Akuetteh, actual US ambassador to Gabon, told Cameroon’s Prime Minister Philemon Yang, that “Cameroon should rapidly act and avoid investment arbitration” adding that “failing to do so could discourage future foreign investments”. On November 25, 2015, President Biya signed three decrees that “temporarily” award, in the south western part of Cameroon, 20 “dependencies” covering about 20 ha of the national domain.

In 2015, Sg-Soc was bought by new investors, who appointed Jonathan Johnson-Watts as chief of operations. As the land lease awarded to the firm expires in November 2016, Watts’ current mission is to secure a presidential decree which will grant the company an emphyteutic lease that will extend over a maximum period of 99 years.

The US Embassy to Cameroon was approached by businessincameroon.com to react regarding the accusations of Greenpeace and Oakland Institute, but the American representation remained silent so far.

Sylvain Andzongo