NGO Efforts in Africa’s Largest Oil Project

The contrast between two worlds in Sub-Saharan Africa’s single largest investment project could not be more striking. An hour’s drive over dirt roads from the nearest town, Bebedja, which does not have running water or electricity, lies the base camp of Kome, the logistical center for the drilling of 300 oil wells deep in Chad’s southern region. The camp is a white man’s enclave complete with a small airport, generators, air-conditioned office containers, and even little flower beds in the large suburban-looking parking lot filled with a fleet of ESSO marked jeeps and trucks. The camp is surrounded by the small villages of rondavel mud and straw houses in the shade of tall ancient mango trees where life’s daily routines have barely changed over the centuries. But now the prospect of oil being pumped out underneath their soil raises specters of hope and fear. Hope for schools, clinics and jobs. Fear of further government repression, violence by gangs linked to the military which terrorize local people with impunity, polluted water wells and loss of valuable land and trees. More insecurity is added by increasing conflict between local villages and migrant herders and other Chadians from the country’s north lured to the region by the promise of El Dorado. Will the oil in Chad’s ground bring ruin to its people as it has done in other African oil-producing countries from Nigeria to Angola? Or can it, as its financial backers claim, lead to a reduction in poverty and protect the environment? Delphine Djiraibe’s article provides an overview and analysis of the project, while the focus here is on the role and efforts of NGOs to address the serious risks of this project today, which will leave both Chad and Cameroon transformed for generations to come.