Oil trading company Trafigura announced a potential settlement of a legal case brought by 31,000 residents of Ivory Coast, who alleged the firm caused environmental and health damage by paying a contractors to dispose of oil byproducts in Abidjan. In a compensation claim led by UK lawyer Martyn Day of Leigh Day & Company, residents said the sludge caused diarrhea, nosebleeds, stomach pain, vomiting, and headaches. Trafigura sued the BBC for libel after a programme on the compensation claims in May, writing in a statement that “Trafigura has always denied that the slops caused the deaths and serious health consequences presented by the BBC.”

The BBC ran another programme on Newsnight last night, further exploring the conflict. The Guardian has posted Trafigura emails revealed by the court proceedings online.

Trafigura responded to reports in May by pointing out that its contractor, not Trafigura, dumped the waste in a “reprehensible and illegal way.” A more recent statement from Trafigura addressing last night’s BBC programme is available in full on the BBC website.

Journalists from the BBC, the Guardian, Dutch newspaper Volksrant, Norwegian broadcaster NRK and Estonia cooperated in an investigation of the contamination, according to a BBC report last night. GreenPeace, which along with Amnesty International has also investigated the situation, has asked Dutch prosecutors to press charges, according to the Associated Press.