French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation against energy company TotalEnergies following a deadly 2021 insurgent attack in Mozambique.
The probe coincides with the United States recently approving nearly $5 billion in funding for the same project, exposing stark contrasts as to how different countries view the controversial gas development.
The investigation, launched in Nanterre, will examine claims of involuntary manslaughter and failure to help people in danger during the March 2021 attack on Palma in northern Mozambique.
Survivors and families of victims filed the legal complaint in October 2023.
Bloody Attack Leads to Legal Action Against Company
The attack by Islamic State-linked militants killed dozens according to official tallies, though independent research counted 1,402 people dead or missing, including 55 TotalEnergies contractors.
The violence lasted several days, with some victims beheaded, and thousands forced to flee the area.
Nicholas Alexander, a South African who lived through the attack, welcomed the investigation. "At this stage we just want a proper judicial inquiry and some clear answers," he told reporters.
The seven British and South African complainants – three survivors and four relatives of victims – say the company failed to take steps to ensure the safety of its subcontractors despite escalating danger in the area.
The Al-Shabaab group that carried out the attack had been active in Cabo Delgado province since 2017.
"The danger was known," said complainants' lawyer Henri Thulliez in 2023.
Company Denies Wrongdoing While Seeking Project Restart
TotalEnergies has strongly rejected the accusations.
"TotalEnergies has been informed of the opening of a judicial investigation into the Mozambique terrorist attacks of March 2021," the company said in a statement. "The Company categorically rejects these accusations."
The energy giant claims its teams worked to provide emergency assistance and helped move more than 2,500 people during the crisis.
One core allegation is that TotalEnergies refused to provide fuel to a South African security company that was running helicopter rescues from a besieged hotel during the attack. The company eventually ran out of fuel, leaving people stranded inside.
Janik Armstrong, whose husband Adrian Nel was killed in the siege, described how 150 people held out for two days at Amarula Lodge, “waiting for a rescue by Total or the Mozambican security forces that never arrived.”
When they realised they had been left in the lurch, they tried to break out in a car group but were shot at by the attackers, who killed her husband.
U.S. Loan Approval Moves Project Forward Despite Concerns
Despite the ongoing legal issues, the US Export-Import Bank approved a nearly $5 billion loan for the long-delayed liquefied natural gas project last week.
The $20 billion development was put on hold after the 2021 attack, before any money from a previously approved loan had been handed out.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said last month that he expected funding from the United States to be approved soon, with other credit agencies to follow in the coming months.
The company has been waiting for loan re-approvals from the United States, UK and Dutch export credit agencies before lifting a force majeure, a legal term meaning unforeseeable circumstances, on the project.
Estevao Pale, Mozambique’s energy minister, told reporters that he also expects the UK and Netherlands to back the project again soon.
Communities Continue to Protest Land Rights Violations
Meanwhile, local communities near the TotalEnergies project site have been pushing back against what they see as breaches of their land rights.
In November 2024, members of Macala and Mangala communities blocked gates at the company’s Afungi site, with at least 400 people taking part.
"Just as we are stopping food production, the company should stop their activities as well," protesters chanted.
Behind the anger is a relocation process that began in 2019. While hundreds of families gave up their land, many have not received replacement fields or payment.
About 603 families have been blocked from using their land since October 2023, including land where the project has already built roads through former food-growing fields.
Environmental Groups Call for Project Withdrawal
A group of 124 NGOs put out a call to dozens of banks and other money lenders in November 2023, asking them to walk away from the project.
The groups argued that "the humanitarian and security risks, as well as the complexity of operations in a conflict zone" were not fully understood.
Following the U.S. loan approval, several NGOs issued a joint statement calling on European and Asian funders “to refuse to follow this toxic and irresponsible lead and to oppose the restart of the project, a climate bomb associated with numerous allegations of human rights violations.”
Environmental activist Anabela Lemos stated that the “harmful effects” of TotalEnergies’ work in Mozambique went beyond the 2021 attack, pointing to environmental “harm” and “deaths” resulting from its presence.
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