Rights groups have accused France's TotalEnergies and Chinese oil company CNOOC of human rights violations and environmental damage linked to a €10 billion oil project in Uganda and Tanzania.
Issued on: 13/12/2024 -
Police apprehend a Ugandan activist during a protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) plans in Kampala, Uganda, on 15 September, 2023. © Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters
By: RFI
The project includes drilling for oil in Lake Albert in northwestern Uganda and constructing a 1,443-kilometre heated pipeline to transport crude oil to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), championed by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, has faced years of opposition from environmentalists who warn it threatens fragile ecosystems and local communities.
A report released Thursday by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Civic Response on Environment and Development, and Lawyers Without Borders alleges "disproportionate security measures, repression, land rights violations, forced evictions and corruption" during the project.
It accuses Ugandan troops of beating and harassing fishing communities near the oil sites, with cases of sexual and gender-based violence reportedly committed by soldiers and company personnel.
The most serious abuses occurred around the Kingfisher oil fields, where the report described a "high level of fear".
"There has been an acceleration in construction at the oil sites over the last two years, bringing a new wave of human rights abuses," Sacha Feierabend, a senior researcher with FIDH, told RFI.
The report also highlights violations of workers' rights and specific challenges faced by women in affected communities.
"There is intensifying repression of human rights defenders, climate and environmental activists, who are trying to make their voices heard regarding this project," Feierabend added.
Since May, at least 96 activists have been arrested, with additional reports of break-ins, beatings, unlawful detentions and torture.
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'Violation of international law'
The report claims some 12,000 families around the pipeline have been displaced, as have hundreds of households around Lake Albert.
The most serious case dates back to May 2020 during the Covid pandemic when 769 people from the villages of Kiina and Kyabasambu "were driven out at gunpoint and never returned".
The NGOs condemned the evictions and said that without prior notice or compensation they constituted a "violation of international and constitutional law".
There are also fears of inflation due to land speculation, as well as concerns over working conditions on the sites, where at least two people have died in labour-related incidents.
Those who still live in the immediate vicinity of the oil sites also complain "regularly of dust, noise, light pollution and vibrations".
Oil spills are "a serious threat to the environment and public health", the report said, while "the catchment areas of the two lakes [Albert and Victortia] are vital to tens of thousands of people across East Africa".
'Smear campaign'
Ugandan government spokesman Chris Baryomunsi dismissed the report as "ridiculous and unfounded," describing it as a "smear campaign" against the project.
Baryomunsi urged anyone with evidence of human rights abuses to report it to the authorities.
TotalEnergies also rejected the claims, stating it "strongly disagrees" with the allegations.
"In Uganda, as elsewhere, TotalEnergies is transparent about its human rights commitments and their implementation," the company said.
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