The four students arrested on Friday September 15 in front of Parliament in Kampala while peacefully demonstrating against the oil exploitation project led by TotalEnergies in the west of the country and its giant EACOP (East African Crude Oil Pipeline) pipeline were kept in custody. detention following the hearing held Monday before the Bugoma Road court. They are accused of “public nuisance” and face a sentence of one year’s imprisonment under the penal code, according to the charges served on them. One of them, Abdul Twaibu Magambo, was beaten during his arrest, said his lawyer Mr. Alexander Kafeero and is demanding emergency medical care. He was allowed to have a visit from his doctor.
A new hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, September 20 to argue a request for bail while they await trial. “The government’s aim is to silence climate activists. However, we consider that they have not committed any offense by wanting to express themselves on the consequences of the TotalEnergies project. The Ugandan Constitution recognizes the right to demonstrate,” defends Mr. Kafeero.
The harassment suffered by climate activists – accused of being against the development of the country – or against farmers who refuse the conditions of expropriation of their land is a constant practice. “It has become very difficult to protest and assemble. Some students, identified like me as activists from the start, are constantly worried by the police, wherever they go and whatever they do. We are afraid for our lives. In a country where freedom of expression is considered a threat by the government, it is obviously difficult to bring other people into our cause,” says one of them, on condition of anonymity.
The symbol of climate control projects
The silence that the government would like to impose is being met beyond Uganda’s borders by the most important international campaign against the opening of new oil fields. EACOP and its 1,440 km of heated oil pipeline between Uganda and Tanzania, its influence on protected natural areas and its tens of thousands of displaced people has become the symbol of climate control projects at a time when the time should be for withdrawal fossil fuels to prevent the worst effects of global warming.
In the streets of New York, Sunday, September 17, banners against EACOP opened the great march for the climate organized on the eve of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and the summit on climate ambition convened by the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. Among them, the founder of the Ugandan branch of the Fridays for Future movement, Hilda Nakabuye, called for the immediate release of the students and respect for human rights in Uganda. TotalEnergies, deemed complicit in the authoritarian regime of Yoweri Museveni, has once again been arrested.
The project is also the target of the call launched by 300 scientists in favor of a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels. “If the EACOP has become emblematic of climate control projects, it is because it highlights the obvious contradiction between the climate commitments displayed by the fossil fuel majors such as TotalEnergies and their actions. Most of these companies have committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. However, in May 2022, a scientific study identified 425 large fossil extraction projects around the world, called “carbon bombs”, whose emissions combined potential would represent twice the carbon budget not to be exceeded to maintain 1.5°C of global warming,” they wrote to the States meeting in New York.
Under pressure from NGOs including Reclaim finances, 26 banks and 23 insurers have committed not to finance or insure the project, the amount of which is estimated at 10.5 billion dollars (9.8 billion euros). TotalEnergies is reportedly looking to raise $3.5 billion to complete its investment.