TotalEnergies invites Mozambique to investigate gas plant massacre

The French energy giant TotalEnergies welcomed a Mozambican government offer to allow an investigation into allegations of a massacre at its gas megaproject in northern Mozambique — and urged an inquiry be carried out “as soon as possible.”

The call comes after the company’s Mozambican subsidiary Mozambique LNG said it had conducted its own “extensive research” and “not identified any information nor evidence that would corroborate the allegations of severe abuses and torture.”

POLITICO reported in September that a Mozambican military unit operating out of TotalEnergies’ gas plant herded a group of between 180 and 250 people into containers at the energy giant’s gatehouse and kept them there for three months.

Eleven survivors, plus two witnesses, testified that only 26 men survived the ordeal. POLITICO published a summary of a survey that identified 97 victims, and listed their causes of death as suffocation, being beaten to death, being shot, being “disappeared” — taken away and presumably executed — and missing, presumed dead after last being seen in the army’s custody.

Relatives of the victims told POLITICO they had kept silent about the massacre out of fear of reprisals.

Work on the site was halted in 2021 as Islamist militants swept through the region. TotalEnergies and the Mozambican authorities have denied all knowledge of the attack. 

In a statement published Tuesday, Mozambique LNG noted that in October the Mozambican Ministry of Defence expressed a “total openness and willingness to accept a transparent and impartial investigation.”

“Mozambique LNG has invited the authorities of Mozambique to carry out such an investigation as soon as possible,” the statement read. “Mozambique LNG will keep following up with the Mozambican authorities as only they can take the investigations further at this stage.” 

On November 24, a joint investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde and the investigative news outlet Source Material published similar findings. 

Two weeks ago, protesters from the Afungi peninsula where the gas plant is located began a blockade at Total’s front gates, holding up signs that read: “Total, we don’t want war. We want our rights.”

Friends of the Earth are among a raft of campaigners and lawmakers across Europe calling for an independent United Nations investigation of the atrocity. 

A spokesperson for the group in France said that by proposing that Mozambican authorities investigate the military’s human rights abusers, TotalEnergies “once again displays its collusion with the very same authorities whose role in and responsibility for these alleged atrocities are currently being called into question.” 

“Our demand for a truly independent investigation is more needed and urgent than ever,” she said, adding that TotalEnergies’ “complete dismissal of the voices and pain of the victims … reflect very poorly on the company.”