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Thursday, May 15, 2014
Death threats have been received by two employees of the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the WWF’s opposition to oil and gas exploration in the DRC’s Virunga National Park. UK firm Soco International announced plans last month to launch a seismic campaign in the bio-diverse park, which is also a World Heritage Site, drawing a considerable amount of criticism from environmentalists.
Soco condemned the threats, although it did say it does not have any plans to halt exploration and can operate in the World Heritage Site using environmentally sensitive techniques.
WWF said that members of its staff who had spoken publicly against the oil project had received threatening phone calls. “Angered by a staff member’s public statements about the negative impacts of oil, one caller said ‘We want his head’,” WWF said in a statement posted on its website.
Soco maintains that any linking of the threats or to the attack on Virunga’s chief warden, Emmanuel de Merode in April. “Soco condemns this behavior and does not condone acts of threats or intimidation of any kind,” Roger Cagle, deputy chief executive, said in a statement sent to Reuters. “It is emphasized that Soco is a responsible company operating under a strict Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which it takes extremely seriously,” he added.
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