Brutal expropriations, attacks on people, damage to the environment… The NGO Climate Rights International (CRI) denounces in a report published on Monday, September 2, numerous attacks on populations and the environment on a site of the mega-oil project developed in Uganda and Tanzania by the French company TotalEnergies and the Chinese company CNOOC.
The program, with a total investment of 10 billion dollars (9 billion euros), involves drilling more than 400 wells to extract oil from the Lake Albert region in western Uganda and building the longest heated oil pipeline in the world (1,443 km) to transport it to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. It has been strongly denounced by environmental groups, who believe that it threatens the region’s fragile ecosystem and the people who live there.
“Sexual favors”
In its report, Climate Rights International details a “catalog of violations” which accompanied the installation of Kingfisher, one of the two Ugandan production sites, operated by CNOOC on the south-eastern shore of the lake. The second, called Tilenga, is managed by TotalEnergies on the northern shore. Interviews with 88 people revealed that the local population was expelled “by force, often with little or no notice”by the Ugandan army, which destroyed fishing boats, the main means of subsistence in the region, the NGO underlines. Residents said they had accepted under the «pression» or the «menace» financial compensation that they consider “far too weak”.
CRI also said it had been informed of sexual violence committed by soldiers, who demanded sexual relations from women under penalty of arrest or confiscation of the fish they sell for a living, but also “by executives and superiors in companies operating within the Kingfisher project, including one (case) involving a CNOOC employee.” Some people responsible for promoting the hiring of locals “ask for bribes”explains a woman: “If you don’t have money, it’s common for them to ask for sexual favors to get a job.” “At work, if you refuse to sleep with your boss, you can be kicked out very quickly.”explains another.
Two employees of a Chinese drilling company reported deliberate pollution. “They explained that their former supervisor (…) had asked them to empty the contaminated water basins from the drilling platform directly into the lake or onto a vacant lot around the platform (…) These basins contain a mixture of water, oil and chemicals.”according to the report.
Missing activist
The Ugandan authorities, for whom this project represents a financial windfall, suppress all criticism and the region lives in “an atmosphere of fear and intimidation”the NGO writes. In June, an environmental activist, Stephen Kwikiriza, disappeared for five days. His association claimed that he had been arrested and beaten by soldiers. On August 9, 47 students were arrested as they were going to submit a petition to Parliament, a few days after the arrest of four activists in front of the Chinese embassy.
Legal proceedings against this megaproject are underway in France. A civil action has been launched by 26 Ugandans and five French and Ugandan associations to request “repair” various damages (abusive expropriations, insufficient compensation, harassment, etc.) and a criminal complaint was filed by associations (Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal, Stop EACOP-Stop Total in Uganda) for «climaticide». In January, TotalEnergies announced the launch of a “assessment mission” of its relocation and compensation program in Uganda and Tanzania.
