European lawmakers condemn atrocities at French energy giant’s African fortress

European lawmakers, human rights organizations and lawyers reacted with outrage to POLITICO’s investigation into the massacre of civilians at a gas plant in Mozambique owned by TotalEnergies.

The report, published Thursday, details the abduction, rape and killing of civilians by a Mozambican military unit operating out of the gatehouse of the French energy giant’s gas plant in the summer of 2021.

The soldiers accused villagers who had fled their homes of being members of an Islamist insurgency, cramming them into shipping containers and subjecting them to beatings and starvation. Of those captured, only a small portion survived.

The French energy giant had contracted a Mozambican security unit to defend the plant despite warnings that some soldiers had allegedly carried out human rights abuses.

TotalEnergies told POLITICO it had “no knowledge of the alleged events described” nor “any information indicating that such events took place.”

Yannick Jadot, a French senator and environmental activist, took to the social media platform X to call for the incident to be investigated.

“Could the oil group and France have been unaware of the crimes committed?” Jadot asked. “We are looking at options to ensure that the truth is established and justice done,” continued Jadot, who led an inquiry commission into TotalEnergies in France this year.

Henri Thulliez, a French lawyer representing seven plaintiffs in another case against TotalEnergies in Mozambique, said: “It was reckless to assume that security was the exclusive problem of the state and the army. TotalEnergies relied too much on an ill-prepared army already known for human rights violations.”

German MEP Lukas Sieper from the Party of Progress said the energy company should have known that an incident like this was possible.

“It’s like giving a loaded gun to a child,” Sieper said. “Of course, TotalEnergies had no intention for stuff like that to happen, but if you have all the information, know all the local actors, their history with human rights abuses, and still conduct your business, you are responsible … it’s a perfect example of a corporate social responsibility failure,” he told POLITICO in a phone call.

Sieper said his party will push for better implementation of the due diligence directive, EU rules that compel companies to safeguard the environment and human rights in their supply chains, as there are “thousands of companies producing similar situations right now.”

Marie Toussaint, vice president of the Greens/EFA Group, told POLITICO in a statement that Total’s strategy aiming at “maximising profit to the detriment of the people must be stopped.”

“This is a clear violation of our values, French values and European values, that a company keeps on earning money by making pacts with dictators, killing the climate and destroying people’s lives,” Toussaint, who has proposed the public authorities take over Europe’s largest oil companies, said.

French MEP Manon Aubry said she was shocked by the events described in the article, and that the EU has to ensure a swift implementation of the due diligence legislation to “stop corporate human rights abuses.”

“Big global companies must be held accountable for their crimes,” she told POLITICO in a statement.

The environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth called for an official investigation into the reports, adding that it has warned companies, banks and states about “the risks associated with this project and the serious flaws in the human rights due diligence carried out by TotalEnergies.”

Construction on the gas plant has been halted since 2021 when the Islamist rebels overran the region, massacring more than 1,000 people. French authorities are already investigating TotalEnergies’ management over the deaths of its contractors in that attack. 

“This project must not be relaunched,” said Lorette Philippot of Friends of the Earth France. “TotalEnergies has shown itself unworthy of trust. We call on the financiers — in France, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale — to stop turning a blind eye, and on elected representatives to take up this investigation and demand accountability.”

There was outrage also in the United Kingdom, with Natalie Bennet, a member of the House of Lords and former leader of the UK Green Party, denouncing the allegations against TotalEnergies as “hideous human rights abuses.”

Aude Le Gentil contributed reporting.