A report by a Swiss advocacy group says a timber company logging Cameroon’s Ebo Forest is tied to a wider network of political élites in Yaoundé.The company, Sextransbois, is part of a network of logging and agriculture interests owned by prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih.Corporate registry documents analyzed by the group show that Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of President Paul Biya’s eldest son before being transferred to Al Fatih’s half-brother in 2014.Environmental groups have accused a number of companies owned by or linked to Al Fatih of breaking Cameroonian law.
A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country.
These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) also named SCIEB, which controls another concession in the Ebo Forest covering 65,000 hectares (161,000 acres).
The report used corporate registry documents, trade records, and sources in Cameroon’s forestry sector to link both companies, along with Boiscam and Camvert, to prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih.
