Victims take TotalEnergies to court over terror attack in Mozambique

Victims and their families have filed a complaint against French company TotalEnergies for "involuntary manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger" following a jihadist attack in Palma, Mozambique in 2021. Some employees of the company were among the more than 1,000 killed or missing.

Rwandan soldiers patrol in Afungi near the Total complex, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, on September 22, 2021. AFP - SIMON WOHLFAHRT

Seven survivors and relatives of victims of a jihadist attack in Mozambique announced on Monday that they had filed a complaint against TotalEnergies for "involuntary manslaughter and failure to provide assistance to a person in danger".

The French oil group, which was then leading a mega-gas project in the region, is accused of acts of negligence and of not having ensured the safety of its subcontractors during the attack on Palma, claimed by the group Islamic State, in March 2021.

Mozambique reported around thirty victims but the exact number of victims of the attack remain unknown.

According to Alexander Perry, an independent journalist who investigated for five months in Palma between November 2022 and March 2023, the toll is 1,402 civilians dead or missing, including 55 subcontractors of the Total group.

Several of them took refuge in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, the Amarula Lodge, then besieged for several days by the jihadists.

Negligence

Three survivors of the attack and four beneficiaries of two victims now accuse the oil group of "having been negligent in terms of risk assessment".

"This was in contradiction with public statements at the time [of its CEO] Patrick Pouyanné, who assured that security was Total's priority," Henri Thulliez, the plaintiffs' lawyer told French news agency AFP.

The complaint is based in particular on two reports from risk consulting companies, made a posteriori, and which highlighted the absence of preventive measures.

"However, the danger was known, several villages had been attacked before the attack on Palma, and the jihadist threat was real," Thulliez said. 

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In 2019, a company competing with TotalEnergies, Exxonmobil, had also given up investing in the project and repatriated its staff.

The attack led to the suspension of the project to exploit a huge natural gas deposit, representing a total investment of $20 billion for Total.

Patrick Pouyanné, the group's CEO, recently said he hoped to relaunch it before the end of the year.

"The reality on the ground remains problematic, the gas contracts are unfair and the risks for the population, the environment, the climate and the economy of Mozambique are extremely high," environmentalist movement Friends of the Earth said, estimating that the complaint constituted "further proof" that "this project should not be relaunched".

(with newswires)