Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Esther FOSSI
Published on 2024-04-11 10:07:32
The incident occurred in a raw cotton storage warehouse in the Far North region.
In Cameroon, the Cotton Development Company (Sodecoton), a subsidiary of the French company Geocoton (a subsidiary of the Advens group), fell victim to a violent fire on April 9, 2024, in Maroua, the regional capital of the Far North. The flames engulfed a warehouse storing the company’s raw cotton. The local administrative authorities in the Far North region quickly responded to the fire by visiting the scene to assess the situation.
It is worth noting that the fire broke out in the early afternoon of April 9, 2024, indicating that the warehouse was in operation at the time of the incident. The causes of the fire are still unknown and are currently under investigation by the relevant authorities. “Upon our arrival, we found piles of cotton on fire. Three out of ten piles are on fire. Each pile weighs approximately 500 tons,” emphasized Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Djaoyang Djorwé, commander of the 40th firefighters’ group based in the Far North.
Prior to this incident, the Cotton Development Company (Sodecoton) compensated the populations affected by the establishment of its 11th cotton ginning plant in Godola, near Maroua in the Far North region of Cameroon. This compensation, totaling 48 million CFA francs, aims to compensate the displaced populations on the project site.
This compensation process allows Sodecoton to progress smoothly in the realization of its project, without encountering the usual obstacles related to the demands of affected populations. Indeed, in many infrastructure and industrial projects in Cameroon, delays or disruptions are often due to demands for compensation from local populations.
However, this fire comes at a time when the company’s production figures are not very promising. According to the recent report of the Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public and Parastatal Sector Enterprises (CTR), at the end of the 2021-2022 cotton campaign, Sodecoton produced 329,021 tons of cottonseed, a decrease of 9% compared to the previous year. Experts explain that this decline is due to a shortage of fertilizers and pesticides, which led to adjusting the fertilization doses, resulting in a direct 11% decrease in average yields per hectare.
Read the original article(French) on Journal du Cameroun
