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British and South African complainants accuse TotalEnergies of failing to take steps to ensure the safety of subcontractors during the attack. French prosecutors stated that they were investigating TotalEnergies for possible involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2021 attack in Mozambique that killed hundreds.
British and South African complainants accuse TotalEnergies of failing to take steps to ensure the safety of subcontractors during the attack. French prosecutors stated that they were investigating TotalEnergies for possible involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2021 attack in Mozambique that killed hundreds.
The probe follows a legal complaint brought by victims’ families and the survivors, accusing the French energy company, which was developing a major liquefied gas project in the region, of failing to protect its subcontractors, the prosecutors. The survivors and families say TotalEnergies also failed to provide fuel so that helicopters could evacuate civilians after militants killed dozens of people in the Mozambican port town of Palma on March 24, 2021. The entire attack in Cabo Delgado province lasted several days, claiming several hundred lives. Some of the victims were beheaded and thousands fled their homes.
TotalEnergies spokesman reiterated a previous statement saying it “firmly rejects the accusations”.He said the company’s Mozambique teams had supplied emergency aid and made the evacuation of 2,500 people from the plant possible, including civilians, staff, contractors and sub-contractors. The French investigation also seeks to establish whether TotalEnergies is guilty of non-assistance to people in danger.
Seven British and South African complainants – three survivors and four relatives of victims – accuse TotalEnergies of failing to take steps to ensure the safety of subcontractors even before the assault. TotalEnergies’s USD 20-billion project to develop a large gas field on the Afungi peninsula was halted following the 2021 attack, but chairman Patrick Pouyanne has since said he hoped to revive it.
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In November 2023, a group of 124 NGOs posted an open letter to dozens of financial institutions, including European, Japanese and South African banks, urging them to withdraw from the project.The project threatened local ecosystems and the global climate, while failing to benefit local communities, they said.
Mozambique has set high hopes on vast natural gas deposits – the largest found south of the Sahara – that were discovered in the northern province in 2010.
