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By Elodie Toto
“I had diarrhea and dizziness. Food no longer tasted the same. … I wasn’t the only one who noticed it — it was the same for everyone in the village; we couldn’t breathe,” Benoît Packera, secretary of the vigilance committee of Kitombe, told Mongabay. He was recounting what happened in April 2025, when toxic gases were released by a Perenco facility in southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The committee raised the alarm about the impacts, which led to a parliamentary commission visiting the area and confirming the existence of pollution in a report. Things went quiet for a while. Perenco continued its flaring operations and the residents claimed they did not receive any treatments or compensation. In May this year, Frustrated residents blocked access roads to Perenco facilities, temporarily disrupting oil operations.
Kitombe is a village located in the Muanda territory. Besides being the only territory giving the country access to the ocean, Muanda is also home to oil reserves exploited by Perenco REP (Perenco’s subsidiary in the DRC) since the early 2000s, where it extracts around 4,500 barrels of crude oil per day. However, this exploitation has not come without conflict. The company has repeatedly faced allegations of pollution and adversely impacting agricultural yields, villagers say.
But on April 12, 2025, tensions reached a breaking point. “It smelled extremely bad and very strong, like rotten eggs. I coughed a lot and felt like vomiting,” Packera recalled. That day, gas was released into the atmosphere from the tank farm, which refers to a crude oil storage facility built in the village of Kitombe. This release added to the gas routinely emitted by the facility from flaring operations carried out by the company.
A banner capturing the opposition to the oil company Perenco in Kitombe, DRC. Image courtesy of Alphonse Khonde.
Usually when oil is extracted, it often rises to the surface mixed with water and gas, known as “associated gas.” After being separated from the oil, the gas can be flared, producing the visible flames seen on flare stacks. However, this practice also generates significant greenhouse gases through unburned methane and carbon dioxide (CO2). In response, Kitombe residents formed a vigilance committee and alerted Congolese authorities. In May 2025, Ève Bazaiba, the then-environment minister, and several official teams visited the area. A parliamentary commission was established and quickly published a report corroborating residents’ testimonies, writing that water, air and soil pollution were found onsite with chemical components including “sulfur dioxide, which can cause respiratory diseases and soil acidification; nitrogen oxides, which can pollute air quality and affect the health of residents; hydrogen sulfide, which can cause olfactory anesthesia.”
However, Perenco does not appear to have cooperated with the parliamentary investigation. At the time the parliamentary report was published, the multinational had not responded to lawmakers’ questions regarding the incident. The report also flagged missing evidence at the site after the incident and that the OCC [Congolese Control Office] could not access critical monitoring data from the time.
Despite the report’s conclusions, the environment ministry does not appear to have initiated legal proceedings. Mongabay contacted the ministry for further information but had not received a response by the time of publication.
In a statement to Mongabay, Perenco wrote that “a project aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been in place since 2021. This project has led to a significant reduction in the number of flares. As a result, 220 flares have already been permanently extinguished and the sites remediated in the Kinkasi and Kitombe regions. We are also in discussions with the government regarding options for utilizing the gas which would, in the long term, further limit, or even eliminate, emissions.”
They, however, did not provide any further details about the pollution incident on April 12, 2025, and its aftermath.
Meanwhile, residents submitted a list of demands to Perenco in a document reviewed by Mongabay. These include medical care for villagers, local employment opportunities and the relocation of the tank farm facility to prevent future pollution.
Yet one year later, residents say nothing has changed. “There has been absolutely no follow-up. As we speak, my throat and nostrils are burning. The soil is polluted, our land has become increasingly infertile and our crops can no longer produce good yields,” Packera told Mongabay.
Mobilization of residents of Kitombe village in the DRC during demonstrations on May 6 and 7 against the oil company Perenco. Image courtesy of Alphonse Khonde.
On May 8, the population mobilized. Residents erected barricades made of tree trunks on roads leading to the company’s facilities in an attempt to block the movement of vehicles and machinery belonging to the oil company. The protest temporarily paralyzed activities at Perenco’s southern oil field operations. Although the protest was local, the international coalition Notre Terre Sans Pétrole (NTSP), which brings together more than 210 organizations from 12 countries, publicly expressed its support. “The NTSP coalition reminds all parties that the demands raised by Muanda communities are legitimate and must be heard. It calls on Congolese authorities and Perenco to respond without delay to the communities’ requests and to implement concrete, visible and verifiable measures on the ground.”
In response, the oil giant released a statement in French addressing the population of Muanda and the inhabitants of Kitombe in particular, describing the protesters as ill-intentioned individuals and accusing them of obstructing the electrification of Kitombe village. The communique did not directly address the substance of the communities’ complaints. “Faced with this situation, Perenco REP condemns these acts, which penalize all residents of Kitombe village and negatively impact the company’s operations,” the statement reads.
Packera responded to the company’s charges, saying the electric supply had already been disrupted three weeks before the protest occurred. According to Kitombe’s vigilance committee, the managing director of Perenco REP had promised to visit the area on May 14, 2026, to meet residents and begin discussions. But the promise was never fulfilled. “It is dishonest. Here in Kitombe, the situation is pushing people to the limit. If they continue failing to keep their promises, we may return to the barricades,” Packera said. According to the Congolese law, local communities should benefit from oil royalties through a percentage collected by their provincial authority. “Since we do not benefit from our rights and have no jobs, we increasingly see no reason to continue exposing ourselves to this pollution for nothing,” he added. On their side, Perenco, in its statement to Mongabay, assured that “80% of staff assigned to onshore operations come from local communities.”
This is not the first time the multinational has faced accusations of pollution. The NGOs Sherpa and Friends of the Earth sued Perenco in France in late 2022 following revelations about pollution linked to the group’s operations in the DRC. Back then, an investigative consortium found 167 pollution episodes reported in the area during the last 15 years linked to Perenco activities. After three years of legal proceedings, the French oil company is now expected to stand trial before the Paris judicial court for “ecological damage” in the DRC. The civil trial could take place in late 2026 or early 2027.
Banner image: Mobilization of residents of Kitombe village in the DRC during demonstrations on May 6 and 7 against the oil company Perenco. Image courtesy of Alphonse Khonde.
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This article was originally published on Mongabay
