The French company TotalEnergies – known until 2021 as Total – is the fifth largest company in the oil sector in the world. In 2024, it made a profit of $18.3 billion. The year 2024 was also the warmest year ever measured, and such warming was long known to Total, even long before the first COP climate summit. But, in addition to ignoring it, the narratives opposed to this knowledge were spreading for a long time, in the middle of the Climate emergency number 2,792 of LA LUZ, before changing the business model Total prefers to precipitate doubt and expand as we explained in the report. Ignoring it seems to be part of Total’s strategy, as shown by the study conducted by the newspaper Le Monde and the collective investigative journalism SourceMaterial about a project of the company in Mozambique.

Total was said to be about to make the largest private investment in Africa in history in 2020, more specifically in the city of Palma in the province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique. Its purpose was to extract the large gas field called Afungi and export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from it through the Mozambique LNG consortium.

This project did not go as planned, mainly due to the attacks called "Battle of Palma" channeled by Islamist persecutors between March 24 and April 5, 2021. The city then had about 75,000 inhabitants, many of whom were refugees. On 24 March, Total announced a resumption of work, but the Islamic State of Central Africa began attacking the city on three fronts, surpassing the 1,000 military and police forces present. Hundreds of citizens tried to flee, some of whom went to the Afungi gas field to seek refuge, knowing that there were military personnel hired by the Mozambique LNG consortium.

“You are terrorists”

A year earlier, the consortium managed by Total signed an agreement with the Mozambican government to ensure the safety of the gas exploitation area by the army. The logistics for the soldiers would be taken over by Total, which would pay an incentive to the soldiers, subject to respect for human rights. But in June 2021, those who came to ask for the support of the army suffered severe violence.

At the entrance to the Afungi area, women and men were separated by the military. Dozens of men were accused of being terrorists and began to beat themselves up without trying to find out anything else. Relying solely on this pure – and erroneous – assumption, they kept them in containers for several weeks.Le Mond and SourceMaterial report that the first two days were left uneaten, stacked on top of each other, unable to lie down or sit down. Journalists estimate that 220 men entered the containers over an area of 56 m2. If one of the detainees was thirsty, the others would raise him up so that he could lick the water condensed on the roof of the container. That’s what a 28-year-old fisherman with limited ability to walk since then, who is still unable to fish today, told reporters.

In the following days the inhabitants of the Afungi area denounced the abuses of the local military: obstructions to freedom of movement, money extortion, rape of women, beatings of men – some to death –, unjust arrests and kidnappings. Total told reporters that it was not known about these violations and rights violations, and that a judicial survey was underway.
But after interviewing several witnesses, comparing Mozambican TV videos with satellite images, and analyzing the company’s internal documents, Le Mond and SourceMaterial say Total’s responsibility is evident. In particular, in an internal report by Total, the conditions and consequences of the recruitment of these military personnel are explicit: “In the event of a human rights violation, this liaison with [the contracted military] directly undermines the legal responsibility of the consortium.” Le Monde and SourceMaterial journalists examined several other internal reports, making it clear that Total was aware of allegations of rape in its area. He stopped paying incentive to some of the military members denounced by Total, but continued to secure the Afugi military unit. When Total workers returned to the area in November 2021, the violations continued and the guarantee given to the military unit lasted until October 2023. That is, two and a half years after the first accusations. Ignore what it's like.

The Project’s Treasury in Question

The journalistic investigation has produced its first conclusions: Evidence gathered by Mozambican soldiers about the injustice and human rights violations committed in Afungi has begun to be seriously examined by UK Export Finance and the Dutch government credit agencies Atradius, which were willing to invest in the project. The UK Export Finance agency was about to invest $1.15 billion, but has halted the process for now. The Dutch Ministry of Finance is also reviewing its participation. This situation could jeopardize the support of several other governments, especially with regard to the granting of "export guarantees". Without these guarantees, several banks that would finance the project would not continue, as explained by the campaign manager Anna-Léna Rebaud of the NGO Friends of the Earth. During the last weeks of the Biden administration, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné asked the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, for help. He hadn’t done that on January 20.

We would like to rejoice that this is good news for the climate. But we would be more pleased if there were no multinational oil companies lying and keeping under cover the tortures of the poor in Africa.