The TotalEnergies oil megaproject in Uganda is a “disaster” for the population, “has devastated the livelihoods of thousands of people” and “will contribute to the global climate crisis”, lamented, Monday, July 10, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), asking for it to be stopped.

The French oil group announced last year an investment agreement of 10 billion dollars (about 9 billion euros) with Uganda, Tanzania and the Chinese company CNOOC, including in particular the construction of an oil pipeline ( EACOP) of 1,443 km linking the Lake Albert deposits in western Uganda to the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean.

The project, however, has met with opposition from activists and environmental groups, who believe it threatens the region’s fragile ecosystem and the people who live there.

Food insecurity and debt

For human rights NGO HRW, the project will displace more than 100,000 people and “impoverish thousands”. EACOP “has caused food insecurity and household debt, contributed to children dropping out of school and risks having devastating effects on the environment”, continues the NGO in a report, the result of more than 90 interviews. , including 75 displaced families in five districts of the East African country.

The oil project is “a disaster for the tens of thousands of people who lost land that provided food for their families and an income to send their children to school, and who received insufficient compensation from the part of TotalEnergies,” said HRW environmental researcher Felix Horne in the report. “EACOP is also a disaster for the planet, he continues, and the project should not be completed. »

Several farmers interviewed by HRW say they had to wait years for compensation and fell into debt.

“An Aura of Intimidation”

Some villagers told researchers they were made to sign compensation agreements in English, a language they could not read. Others also noted that “the presence of government and security officials at public meetings helped create an aura of intimidation,” HRW said.

“They come here promising us everything,” a resident told the NGO. We believed them. Now we are landless, the compensation money is gone, the fields we have left are flooded and dust fills the air. »

In a response provided to HRW in June, the TotalEnergies group said it had offered fair compensation to farmers and would “continue to pay particular attention to respecting the rights of affected communities”.

Legal action in France

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1986, has repeatedly described the project as a major economic endeavor in the landlocked country. A non-binding European Parliament resolution last year pinned human rights “violations” against opponents.

At the end of June, twenty-six Ugandans and five French and Ugandan associations launched a new lawsuit in France to demand “reparation” from TotalEnergies for the “damages” caused by its controversial oil megaproject.

In February, the Paris court dismissed opponents of the oil megaproject in Uganda and Tanzania, criticizing the NGOs for not having sufficiently explored the path of dialogue with the oil giant before going to court.