Jean Bolengu Ekunja drove his spear into the ground. “We won’t compromise,” he told the crowd gathered in Baringa, a village deep in the Congo basin rainforest. “If oil activity is what they are going to do here, they will have to kill me first, as the chief. Then they will have to slaughter all the population!”
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is auctioning rights to explore for oil in large swathes of rainforest and other protected areas across the country. Baringa, in the northwest, is one of scores of communities affected. The process has sparked fierce yet familiar debate about environment and development, and set the stage for a legal fight over community rights.
