PAYOUT IN TOXIC WASTE CASE
Sep 21st, 2009 by admin
Dutch oil trader Trafigura has agreed to pay 1,546 US dollars to each of the 31,000 Africans who claim they were affected by the company’s dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast in 2006. A joint statement released yesterday by both parties’ lawyers said there was no proven link between the waste and the subsequent deaths of 15 people. This is contrary to the findings of a United Nations report released last week. The head of the Toxic Waste Victims’ Association, Ouattara Aboubabacar, said the cost of medication for the claimants had been much greater than the $46 million US dollars agreed in the settlement. Tens of thousands of people in Ivory Coast fell ill after a contractor for Trafigura dumped 500 tonnes of toxic waste in landfills around Abidjan in 2006.
