KEY POINTS
- African communities demand TotalEnergies halt operations and pay reparations during coordinated week of action.
- Nigerian residents accuse company of decades-long neglect, health risks from gas flaring, and unfulfilled promises.
- Campaigners vow legal battles, protests, and international pressure to force accountability and push energy transition.
Communities throughout Africa have demanded that French energy giant TotalEnergies cease operations on the continent, compensate impacted populations, and create space for a fair transition to renewable energy in a broad display of defiance against fossil fuel goliaths.
From August 18 to 24, at least ten African countries—including Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—will participate in the campaign, which is called Africa Week of Action to Kick Total Out of Africa.
The coordinated effort, according to organizers, highlights the public’s mounting dissatisfaction with oil and gas projects, which detractors claim do little good for host communities while causing more environmental and social harm.
Communities escalate calls for justice
On August 18, the Ogbogu community in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Nigeria’s oil-rich Rivers State held a town hall meeting to highlight decades of complaints against TotalEnergies’ operations under the OML 58 cluster. Locals accused the company of persistently underinvesting in local development, breaking promises, and using divide-and-rule tactics.
“We insist that Total leaves Nigeria. Their operations have done more harm than good,” said Ajie Wisdom, a community member, who cited worsening health conditions linked to gas flaring and polluted water sources.
Residents called for more stringent government oversight to hold multinational oil companies responsible, full environmental cleanup, and compensation for livelihoods lost to oil operations.
With petitions scheduled to be presented at a civil tribunal in South Africa on August 24, community leaders and activists promised to intensify their campaign through legal action, demonstrations, and international advocacy.
“This is not just Ogbogu’s cry,” said Endurance Oriakhogba, project officer at the Corporate Accountability and Development Foundation (CODAF). “It’s a demand for justice that will be taken to every forum until TotalEnergies is held accountable and our environment is restored.”
