Story, Louvier KIndo Tombe
With a mixture of frustration and hopelessness, Victor’s voice, barely above a whisper cracked as he spoke of the dreams he once harboured for the community. sitting against the worn walls of his family’s home, the young man‘s defeated posture spoke volumes about the suffocating grip of the agro-industries on their lives.
“They have pushed us to the wall and we have reached a point of no return,” Victor said as he narrates to us the challenges the community is facing.
Victor is among slightly over a dozen young people in Campo who were recently arrested and detained after they blocked the thoroughfares to protest the agro industries.
The youth had staged a public demonstration on Friday January 17, 2025 accusing the agro-industries of non-respect of the terms of reference signed by the company, the community and administrative authorities.
The order to arrest them was given by the Divisional Officer of Campo, BAMOCK Francis IGOR, after the brigade commander who tried to stop the youths was injured in the process.
The protest according to Victor was to push the powers that be to look into a petition against the agro-industries which the youths signed on November 20, 2024 and is with the Divisional Officer of Campo. The principal industry cited in the petition is the oil palm company – CAMVERT.
“We started on a good footing with CAMVERT but along the line things changed drastically,” says Dieudonne Mette, chief of Malaba, a village in Campo sub division, Ocean division of the south region of Cameroon.

The traditional rulers of Campo did not join the youth in their public demonstration but share their grievances. “I wanted to join the movement but the youths refused,” HRM Parfait Ondo Pie, 3rd class chief of Bitande -Assok in Campo said. “Public demands should not be considered as threats somewhere.”
The bitter taste of progress
The Campo community has been ignorant about the terms of reference signed by some of their leaders alongside officials from CAMVERT, SOFONI, and CAMBOIS. It was not until December last year during a meeting in Kribi, headquarters of the Ocean division, that the terms of reference was vulgarized by some civil society organizations. That was when the population had a broader idea of what was at stake, and is considered to have triggered the recent dissent.
“This is the first time that we are taking our worries to this length and we are determined to carry on till our demands are met,” Victor said. “We are aware of the risks and dangers involved.”
The population in Campo continues to question what went wrong, when, and where, between them and the agro-industries. All the promises from the companies have remained in the shelves.
“Out of the 300 projects we agreed, they have succeeded to realize only 1 in my village which is a bore hole,” HRM Parfait Ondo Pie told News Upfront.

“They look at us chiefs as dusters; we have not received a dime as monthly salary agreed upon in the terms of reference.”
The terms of reference contains strategies to protect the environment and compensations to the indigenous population. Among others, the population was to benefit from good roads in all the villages, portable water systems, quality education infrastructure, and a portion of the forest royalties. The chiefs were to see their salaries beefed up and the community children recruited and paid accordingly in the companies, including other development facilities.
Listening to the population, we are left with the impression that apert from some few minor steps taken, nothing concrete has been done in all the villages.
The population was supposed to steer clear from the installations of the companies as well. This they are doing because local authorities are on their neck.
For years on, the companies have not respected their own part of the terms. All efforts to bring them on board to provide solutions to the grievances of the population have turned futile. That explains why the youths had to stage a public manifestation.
The strike action was neither against the D.O. of Campo nor the brigade commander. The idea was to meet with officials of CAMVERT. “We are surprised the D.O. suddenly became the lawyer of the companies,” a youth echoed as we talked to them in Campo.
“Our salary is intimidation from local administrators,” says chief Parfait Ondo.
“We are not rejecting CAMVERT, the issue is that they have to respect the terms of reference,” HRM Dieudonne Mette said.
The situation has led to diseases, destruction of plantations by animals whose habitats have been destroyed by the project, insecurity, hunger, and exodus of population to areas they don’t master.
Healing the divide
The youths of Campo say they have reached a point where their individual concerns have become their collective focus. That explains why they all visited the gendarmerie brigade requesting to be detained alongside their peers arrested during the public demonstration.
When all those arrested were released and a crisis meeting announced, the youths were convinced that a permanent solution would be provided to their worries.
Their hopes were short-lived when news broke out that the announced meeting will not take place in Campo but rather in Kribi, some 120 KM away from the community.
The meeting is scheduled for January 29-30, and the youths say it is different for them to attend. They are not happy that issues of Campo are often been discussed out of Campo.
The youths feel sidelined from the process to find lasting solutions to the problems of the community.