KEY POINTS
- TotalEnergies is facing a criminal complaint in France over allegations of complicity in the torture and execution of civilians in Mozambique, where the company is preparing to restart a multibillion-dollar gas project.
- The complaint, filed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, alleges that TotalEnergies continued to fund an elite Mozambican army unit despite knowing it was implicated in serious abuses, including detaining civilians in shipping containers where they died.
- TotalEnergies denies any wrongdoing, stating it had no knowledge of the alleged abuses and had ceased payments to the unit after an external rights assessor recommended breaking ties with it.
TotalEnergies is facing a fresh legal and reputational storm in France as a human rights group accuses the energy major of complicity in the torture and execution of civilians in northern Mozambique, at a time when the company is preparing to restart its multibillion-dollar gas project in the troubled region.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin-based legal non-profit, has lodged a criminal complaint with France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor.
It argues that the company continued to fund an elite Mozambican army unit despite well-circulated allegations that the force was implicated in serious abuses during a 2021 crackdown around the coastal town of Palma.
ECCHR claims that the unit in question, the Joint Task Force, which was contracted to secure TotalEnergies’ liquefied natural gas site, was already the subject of complaints long before dozens of civilians were allegedly detained in shipping containers and later died.
Rights group says unreleased documents suggest TotalEnergies was alerted to abuses before resuming payments
Chloé Bailey, a senior legal adviser with ECCHR, said the group had asked prosecutors to open an investigation into what it views as potential corporate complicity in acts amounting to torture and extrajudicial killings.
She noted that the complaint draws on previously unseen documents obtained from the Dutch government, which she said reinforce earlier reporting by Le Monde suggesting the company was aware of the risks in 2021.
The prosecutor’s office has the power to pursue criminal charges not only against TotalEnergies as a corporate entity but also against individual executives should it deem the case sufficiently grounded.
The allegations orbit around the events of March 2021, when fighters from the jihadist group al-Shabaab seized Palma in an assault that displaced tens of thousands of people.
After the army restored control, Politico reported last year that JTF troops rounded up villagers, accused them of collaborating with the insurgents, and locked them in metal containers for months.
Based on a detailed survey of affected communities, the outlet reported that nearly 100 detainees either died inside the containers or were executed.
Between 2020 and 2023, TotalEnergies financed the JTF, a force of roughly a thousand soldiers, as part of its security arrangements for the gas development. These payments ceased after an external rights assessor appointed by the company recommended breaking ties with the unit.
In an emailed statement, TotalEnergies said it categorically rejected any suggestion that it had knowledge of the abuses alleged in the Politico investigation or any wrongdoing connected to its Mozambique LNG operations.
