Description: The French oil and gas giant, TotalEnergies is facing a lawsuit for complicity in war crimes in Mozambique related to the company’s project in the Afungi peninsula, located in the resource rich, Cabo Delgado province. The information was initially made public in 2024 through an investigative reporting case conducted by Politico, when disclosures of survivors from the incident, internal documents from TotalEnergies and pictures from the site itself demonstrated that the company was involved in the systematic murdering of civilians who fled the atrocities committed by the Mozambican branch of the Islamic State. Guards and members of the Mozambican military working at the TotalEnergies LNG facility in Mozambique illegally imprisoned more than 500 local villagers. The men were sequestered into shipping containers where they were starved, tortured and killed while the women were raped and murdered. The case was filed by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) before French prosecutors. TotalEnergies has consistently denied any involvement and claimed the company and its executives knew nothing about the personnel working at the Mozambican LNG site and their actions.
Impact: The legal case and the prior investigation which supports the allegations leveled against TotalEnergies demonstrates the grim interconnectedness between governments in conflict laden countries and large business conglomerates which prioritize the economic gains ahead of fundamental human rights. The French company previously calculated its approach towards reinstating the project in Cabo Delgado which indicates that to a certain extent company representatives were aware of the war crimes being committed at the controversial project site. Mozambique has been engulfed in a violent insurgency since 2017, where members of the Mozambican branch of the Islamic State have committed various atrocities and indiscriminately executed civilians. The case further emphasizes the systemic failures of the country to protect its citizens, such as the lack of capacities within its security architecture and underscores the volatility of the terrorist and militant insurgencies that are running rampant across the African continent.