In early 2024, African Parks, the South Africa-based NGO managing Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, commissioned U.K.-based law firm Omnia Strategy LLP to investigate allegations of human rights abuses committed by the park’s rangers against local Indigenous people. The investigation is now complete, and AP has acknowledged that human rights abuses occurred, but it hasn’t released the full Omnia report.
The allegations were first published in January 2024 by U.K. tabloid Daily Mail. It documented claims of beatings, torture and rape of Indigenous Baka people when they enter Odzala-Kokoua’s forests to hunt, fish and forage. The park was created on land ancestrally used by the Baka community.
“Now there is only torture in the forest. Today if a Baka enters the forest and comes across Ecoguards they will torture him to death,” Eyaya, a local Baka man said in a video posted by Survival International, an advocacy group that reportedly raised the allegations to AP in a letter in mid-2023.
In a statement, Omnia said it relied in part on Survival International’s reports from Baka people detailing their forced eviction from ancestral lands and subsequent mistreatment.
Omnia’s investigation reviewed events from 2010, when AP took over management of Odzala-Kokoua, through 2024. The law firm sent investigators to the Republic of Congo on four trips over 16 months, interviewing roughly 180 stakeholders, including potential victims, witnesses, ecoguards, park staff, and government officials.
Although the Omnia report is complete, AP hasn’t made it publicly available. Mongabay made repeated requests for the report, but was redirected to a statement saying, “African Parks acknowledges that, in some incidents, human rights abuses have occurred, and we deeply regret the pain and suffering that these have caused to the victims.”
The statement outlines steps AP will take to “ensure a fully integrated, rights-based approach in everything we do.” AP adds that it’s committed to holding staff accountable for abuse, strengthening safeguard protocols, and working with human rights organizations, while enhancing community engagement through efforts like the Odzala Indigenous Peoples Plan.
Critics say AP’s response doesn’t go far enough. “The root of the problem — which the investigation did not address — is that African Parks continues to cling to a racist and colonial model of conservation which kicks out the Indigenous people whose land it is, while outsiders take control,” said Caroline Pearce, Survival International’s director. “As long as this is the case, the Baka will continue to face abuses and the destruction of their livelihoods.”
Trésor Nzila, executive director of the Development Action Centre, a human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo, told Mongabay in a text message: “Recognition is the first step. Now we need to right the wrongs and strengthen prevention and sanction mechanisms.”
Additional reporting by Latoya Abulu.
Banner image: The Baka community of Makouagonda, whose ancestral land was taken for Odzala-Kokoua National Park, now live beside the road. Image © Survival International.
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