(3 Minutes Read)
The court in Hoima, a town near oil fields, ruled against 42 families claiming inadequate compensation was paid to them, upholding the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
A court in Uganda dismissed claims by dozens of families who felt they had been wronged when they were compensated for the use of land used to develop a TotalEnergies oil megaproject. The court in Hoima, a town near oil fields, ruled against 42 families claiming inadequate compensation was paid to them, upholding the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
The affected people and the activists who are supporting their cause said that the court had given only one day to prepare the case after receiving the summons on December 4. They also pointed out that only 12 people went to court since others couldn’t afford the transport.
This vast project by the French group, which Is touted to have an investment of US $10 billion, is the project undertaken by Uganda, Tanzania, and the Chinese company CNOOC. It envisages the drilling of 419 wells in western Uganda and the construction of a 1,443 km pipeline to link them to the Tanzanian coast.
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In September 2022, the European Parliament expressed concern about human rights violations against opponents of the project in Uganda and Tanzania and asked the French group to study the feasibility of an alternative route that would better preserve protected and sensitive ecosystems and water resources. TotalEnergies asserted that the people displaced by the project have been fairly compensated and that environmental protection measures have been taken.
