The African Court awarded the applicants one CFA franc each.

That is operative paragraph (xi) of Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits de l'Homme and Others v. Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, decided in Arusha on 5 September 2023: "Orders the Respondent State to pay each of the Applicants one (1) symbolic CFA Franc for moral prejudice" [2].

One CFA franc is worth roughly a sixth of a US cent.

The order everyone summarises, and what it actually says

UN experts marked the twentieth anniversary this week with a statement from Geneva, and described the 2023 ruling as ordering "the establishment of a compensation fund, financed by Trafigura and Cote d'Ivoire, to support victims" [1].

The judgment's own wording is narrower, and the difference is the whole story. Paragraph (x) orders the Respondent State to establish a fund "to be financed with the amounts received from TRAFIGURA, and additional resources provided by the Respondent State, as necessary" [2].

Money received from Trafigura. Past tense. That is the $198 million Trafigura paid the Ivorian government under a memorandum of understanding years earlier [3], not a fresh order against the company.

Trafigura was not a party to the case. The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights has no jurisdiction over corporations. Every one of the violations found - Article 4 on life, Article 16 on health, Article 24 on a satisfactory environment, Article 9(1) on the right to receive information - runs against the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire [2].

This is not a court failing. It is the shape of the law. The forum that could reach the state could not reach the company.

What was actually paid, and to whom

Trafigura's own website is the clearest accounting available [3]:

  • 30 million pounds to settle claims by 29,614 claimants represented by Leigh Day in the UK
  • $198 million to the Government of Cote d'Ivoire
  • 1 million euros in the Netherlands

The first line divides out to about 1,013 pounds per claimant, before legal costs. Trafigura adds, in its own words, that "part of the money paid to Leigh Day & Co for distribution to the claimants never reached its intended beneficiaries" [3].

Proportion

For the six months to 31 March 2026, Trafigura reported revenue of $141.9 billion and net profit of $4.1 billion [4].

That is $22.65 million a day, or roughly $943,800 an hour.

Against which: the Dutch criminal penalty is about 1.2 hours of profit. The entire UK settlement with 29,614 people is about 1.8 days. The $198 million Ivorian payment is about 8.7 days.

The casualty figures, both of them

OHCHR's own numbers have moved, and they should be reported as two dated statements rather than blended.

The 2026 statement: "According to official records, 17 people died of toxic gas inhalation and more than 100,000 people sought medical attention in health centres and hospitals" [1].

The 2016 release: 15 deaths, 69 hospitalised, more than 108,000 seeking treatment [1].

What the Dutch court actually fined

Three figures circulate for the same penalty and one of them is almost certainly an artefact.

OHCHR's 2026 statement says $1.3 million. JURIST renders it as 1.3 million euros [6]. Trafigura's own site says it "paid EUR1 million in the Netherlands" [3].

The likeliest resolution is that the fine was 1 million euros, that $1.3 million is a 2010-era dollar conversion of it, and that the euro-denominated 1.3 million figure is those two being merged. This piece uses the company's own euro figure and flags the rest.

The conviction itself is not in doubt. On 23 July 2010 a Dutch court found Trafigura guilty of delivering hazardous waste to Amsterdam while concealing its true nature, and of exporting the waste to Cote d'Ivoire [5]. Amnesty International's response at the time: "This judgement appears damning given Trafigura's previous denials of any wrongdoing" [5].

Trafigura's position remains that "the contents of the slops had been analysed and proved not to have been hazardous as alleged," while adding that "although the dumping of the slops was carried out by a third-party, Trafigura sincerely regrets that it occurred" [3].

Twenty years on, the UN experts say the 2023 ruling remains to be fully implemented [1]. The census of victims it ordered, the medical assistance, the criminal investigation, the transparent report on where the memorandum money went - all of it is owed by a state, to people a court could only compensate one franc at a time.