Nasako Besingi
Cameroon palm oil campaigner arrested in crackdown on activists
Nasako Besingi is an environmental rights defender and the director of Struggle to Economize the Future Environment – SEFE, an NGO based in the village of Mundemba. Besingi has been leading his community in peacefully opposing the development of palm oil plantations by the American agribusiness company Herakles Farms. Since speaking out, the human rights defender has been subjected to threats, judicial harassment, ambush and beatings.
In Cameroon, human rights defenders and journalists critical of the government are particularly targeted and often face harassment. HRDs working on minority and land issues as well as those working on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexed (LGBTI) rights are particularly vulnerable.
