Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 19 • 31st October 2008
Two men convicted in Abidjan toxic dumping scandal
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Two men have been convicted in connection to a devastating 2006 toxic waste dumping incident in Côte d’Ivoire that left 16 people dead and thousands sick. But the sentencing has been met with criticism by defence lawyers and many locals who contend that justice is yet to be served.
The official government investigation named Salomon Ugborugbo, the Nigerian owner of a company whose trucks collected the waste and dumped it at 14 sites in the Côte d’Ivoire city of Abidjan, as the ‘principal’ actor behind the tragedy. He was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison. Essouin Koua Desire, who according to the courts played a key role in securing a US$ 20,000 waste disposal contract for Ugborugbo’s company, was convicted of complicity in poisoning and sentenced to five years in jail.
No executives from Trafigura, the Dutch oil company that owned the waste and had it shipped it to Côte d’Ivoire, were present at the trial. The Dutch multinational reached a US$ 200 million settlement with the Ivorian government in 2007 in return for indemnity against prosecution.
The absence of Trafigura in the case has many pointing to the difficulty in policing the global movement of hazardous waste. “They gave us a decision that has not hit the right people,” said Denis Pipira, president of the association representing victims of the tragedy. “Mr. Salomon did not know this product was toxic. But Trafigura, who were exempted from the case, did know it was toxic,” said Ugborugbo’s defence lawyer, Diabate Bamba Oule.
Trafigura continues to deny any responsibility for the crisis, claiming that according to its own independent analysis the waste contained no hazardous elements. However, UN experts contend that the substance dumped in Abidjan contained hydrogen sulphide, which in concentrated doses can kill humans.
While the Côte d’Ivoire case has come to a close, Trafigura faces several possible class action lawsuits in the Netherlands and in the UK.
According to a Basel Convention publication, the Abidjan incident falls within the regulations of a multitude of multilateral agreements including the Basel Convention, the Bamako Convention, MARPOL 73/78, the Rotterdam Convention, and the Stockholm Convention. However, the dumping case is often cited as a classic example showing the many loopholes that still exist in the toxic substance trade (see Bridges Monthly, September 2006, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridges/11704/ ). “One of the important lessons from the situation in Abidjan is that we have a serious problem with enforcement,” said Basel Convention Executive Secretary Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto.
In response to the Abidjan crisis, the United Nations Environment Program and the Basel Convention member states have contributed to the creation of a 2 year program to assess the problems of hazardous waste detection and interception at 7 vulnerable ports in Africa and to find ways of building capacity at these ports, scheduled to be implemented in June 2008.
“Nigerian gets 20 years for Abidjan toxic waste dumping,” ASSOCIATED PRESS 23 October 2008; “Lawyers blast verdict in Ivory Coast toxic waste case,” AFP 23 October 2008
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