As French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume work on its multibillion-dollar offshore gas project in northern Mozambique, it faces a criminal complaint back home over its role in funding an army unit accused of torturing and executing dozens of civilians in 2021.
The complaint was filed with France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor by Berlin-based legal nonprofit the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). It alleges that TotalEnergies knew of human rights allegations leveled at Mozambique’s elite Joint Task Force (JTF), but continued paying it to secure its facilities.
“With this complaint, we have requested that the specialized prosecutor opens an investigation into the potential complicity of TotalEnergies,” Chloé Bailey, a senior legal adviser with the ECCHR, told Mongabay.
The French prosecutor’s office has the authority to issue indictments that could include criminal charges against both the company and individual TotalEnergies executives.
The ECCHR’s complaint focuses on events that took place in 2021 around the town of Palma, near TotalEnergies’ onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. In March 2021, jihadist militia al-Shabaab captured Palma in a shocking attack that displaced tens of thousands of people.
Last year, U.S.-based outlet Politico published an investigation alleging that after recapturing the town, soldiers with the JTF rounded up civilians from nearby villages, accused them of ties to al-Shabaab, and imprisoned them in shipping containers for months. According to Politico, at least 97 detainees were executed or died inside the containers, based on a door-to-door survey of the villages.
Between 2020 and 2023, TotalEnergies directly financed the JTF, comprised of roughly 1,000 soldiers, to protect its LNG project. The payments ended after a company-appointed rights assessor recommended it sever ties with the unit.
In a statement emailed to Mongabay, TotalEnergies said it “categorically rejects Politico’s allegation that Mozambique LNG or the Company had, or could have had, any knowledge of the acts of violence reported in the Politico article and underpinning the complaint.”
The company has set up an online hub detailing its response to allegations made by both Politico and the French newspaper Le Monde.
Last year, Le Monde published a separate investigation based on documents it obtained through a freedom-of-information request, which suggested that TotalEnergies knew of human rights allegations against the JTF in 2021.
Bailey said the ECCHR’s complaint includes unreleased documents acquired from the Dutch government that corroborate Le Monde’s reporting.
“These show, from our perspective, that Total was aware prior to the alleged events at the containers that the Mozambican security forces had been accused of severe human rights violations,” she said.
The complaint comes just weeks after TotalEnergies announced it would end a five-year force majeure work stoppage at its LNG plant following the insurgent attacks. One of the biggest gas investments in Africa, the project is expected to produce up to 13 million metric tons of LNG annually.
Banner image: People displaced by fighting in Cabo Delgado province, where Palma is located, in 2020. Image courtesy of Mauricio Bisol/UNICEF.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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