Ivory Coast Toxic Dumping Case Settled

Ivory Coast Toxic Dumping Case Settled



Feb 2007 - An 
Amsterdam-based multinational commodities trading company has 
ageed to pay the equivalent of US$198 million to settle claims 
that it arranged to dump 400 tons of toxic waste in the port 
city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. 
Ten people died and some 100,000 others were sickened in the 
August 2006 incident. 
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo tries to comfort victims 
of toxic poisoning in Abidjan. 
A British law firm, Leigh Day & Co, is pursuing a class action 
lawsuit against Trafigura on behalf of the toxic waste 
victims. 
President Gbagbo said that most of the money from the 
settlement would go to help the victims. 
Trafigura said part of the funds would be spent to construct a 
new waste disposal plant and a new hospital in Abidjan. Part 
of the money would go to finance an independent environmental 
audit in Abidjan and an assessment of the ongoing impact of 
the waste dumping on the local people. 
Eric de Turckheim, a Trafigura director said, “Both the 
Ivorian government and Trafigura can now move forward together 
to act in the best interests of the people of Abidjan.” 
He said Trafigura will continue doing business in the Ivory 
Coast. “We have been working in the country for 10 years, 
making significant investments there for the benefit of the 
country and its people,” de Turckheim said. “We look forward 
to continuing to work successfully in the country, and are 
committed to working and investing in both the Ivory Coast and 
Africa as a whole.” 
Following his release from custody in Abidjan, Trafigura 
director Claude Dauphin said, "My colleagues and I are 
relieved and overjoyed to be in the arms of our families again 
after five months in jail as innocent men. 
"We went to the Ivory Coast on a mission to help the people of 
Abidjan, and to find ourselves arrested and in jail as a 
result has been a terrible ordeal for ourselves and our 
families," said Dauphin, who founded Trafigura in 1993 with de 
Turckheim. 
"If any good can come of this," said Dauphin, "myself and my 
colleagues now look forward to Trafigura and the Ivorian 
government working together for a better future for the people 
of Abidjan." 
The toxic waste crisis prompted the Ivory Coast's prime 
minister to dissolve his 32-member cabinet and the city was 
rocked by protests over the government's handling of the 
tragedy. Angry residents set fire to the home of the Abidjan 
port director and attacked the country's transport minister. 
The tanker Probo Koala 
A French firm eventually cleaned up the waste and shipped it 
to France for disposal. 
Environmentalists say the events in Abidjan are a sad reminder 
that the Basel Convention has failed to stem the dumping of 
waste in the Third world. 
"It's time the Basel Convention Parties once and for all agree 
to an interpretation that puts this much needed ban into the 
force of international law," said Jim Puckett, a hazardous 
waste trade expert with the Basel Action Network, BAN. "There 
can be no excuse not to accomplish this at the first 
opportunity." 
Greenpeace condemned the deal because it was struck the day 
before the results of the criminal investigations in the Ivory 
Coast, The Netherlands and Estonia, where the Probo Koala was 
impounded, were published. 
The committee commissioned by the Ivory Coast to look into the 
international implications of the disaster, the Commission 
Internationale d'Enquete sur les Dechets Toxiques dans le 
District d'Abidjan, was scheduled to publish its report 
Wednesday. 
"One cannot do justice without knowing the facts in their 
entirety. At this stage, it would have been more appropriate 
to secure a provisional settlement with an advance payment, 
rather than one that closes the books definitively, especially 
when the full extent of liabilities have not yet been 
determined," said Jasper Teulings, senior legal counsel with 
Greenpeace International in Amsterdam. 
Although this settlement has no bearing on the legal rights of 
the victims of this disaster, Greenpeace fears that the 
victims will now receive little, if any, support from their 
government in pursuing justice.

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