Judicial information for manslaughter and non-assistance to a person in danger was opened Friday against totalnergies in the case of the jihadist attack in Palma, Mozambique, in 2021, announced, on Saturday March 15, the prosecution of Nanterre, solicited by the France-Presse agency (AFP), confirming information from Franceinfo.
Survivors and families of victims of this bloody attack had filed a complaint in the fall of 2023 against the French multinational production and supply of hydrocarbons, which led a gas megaproject in the region and which they accuse negligence. The attack, started on March 24, 2021, had lasted several days and made an indefinite number of victims to date among the local population and subcontractors.
The complainant victims-three survivors and four relatives, of South African and British nationalities-accuse the group (ex-voltal) of not having ensured the security of its subcontractors. Contacted, Totalnergies did not react.
In a press release published at the time of the complaint, in October 2023, the company had rejected “Firmly these accusations and (…) reminder[é] emergency aid that Mozambique LNG teams [la société du projet] [avait] brought and the means they [avaient] mobilized to allow the evacuation of more than 2,500 people (civilians, staff, contractors and subcontractors) of the Afungi site ”where is the site of the liquefied gas project.
“A climatic bomb associated with allegations of human rights violations”
For this attack, Maputo only provided only an assessment of around thirty victims, but according to an independent journalist, Alexander Perry, the results amounted to 1,402 dead or missing civilians, including 55 subcontractors. Several of them had taken refuge in a hotel at the exit of the city, which was besieged by the jihadists.
After the facts, Totalenergies had stopped its gas project and decreed force majeure, which allows a signatory to free up its obligations in the event of an unpredictable and insurmountable event.
On Thursday, the American export credit agency approved a loan of $ 4.7 billion in totalnergies for Mozambique LNG. The start of production is now envisaged in 2029 or 2030, instead of 2028.
Several NGOs, including Reclaim Finance and the Friends of the Earth, called on Friday in a joint press release “Other funders (…)including French banks Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, to refuse to follow this toxic and irresponsible example and to oppose the restart of the project, a climatic bomb associated with numerous allegations of human rights violations “.