TotalEnergies accused of complicity in war crimes in Mozambique

The German non-profit organization European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) has filed a lawsuit with the French anti-terrorist prosecutor's office, accusing the oil and gas company TotalEnergies of "complicity in war crimes, forced abductions and torture in Mozambique." This was reported on November 18 by the newspaper Politico.

The charges followed a Politico investigation conducted in 2024. According to the information received, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Mozambique, who guarded the territory of the TotalEnergies concession in the province of Cabo Delgado, allegedly "forcibly detained, tortured and killed dozens of civilians" from June to September 2021.

At the same time, Mozambique has repeatedly stressed that the rebels, who were opposed by the country's armed Forces, were accomplices of terrorists who have been fighting the official authorities of the state since 2017.

Since 2017, the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabab and the structures of the Islamic State ISCAP ("Central African Province of IG"; IG, Al-Shabab and ISCAP - all three organizations are banned in the Russian Federation) have been operating in the northern province of Mozambique, Cabo Delgado. In March and April 2021, militants carried out a series of attacks trying to take control of the city of Palma in Cabo Delgado, but were knocked out by the military of Mozambique. It is in the vicinity of this city that the largest natural gas processing and liquefaction complex in southern Africa, owned by TotalEnergies, is located.

The conflict between armed terrorist groups and government forces in northern Mozambique has led to an increase in the number of human rights violations committed by both sides, as stated in the annual report of Amnesty International (the organization is considered undesirable in the Russian Federation), and has worsened the humanitarian crisis in 2022. According to Clara Gonzalez, one of the directors of the ECCHR Business and Human Rights program, TotalEnergies "knew that the Mozambican Armed Forces were accused of human rights violations, but continued to provide them with support for the sole purpose of ensuring the safety of its facility."

Representatives of the French company, in response to the publication, stated that their comprehensive investigation "did not reveal any evidence that would support allegations of ill-treatment and torture."

The lawsuit filed was the second against TotalEnergies. In March 2025, the French prosecutor announced the launch of an official criminal investigation into charges of manslaughter and failure to provide assistance to persons in danger in connection with the death of 55 employees of a construction contractor organization as a result of an IG attack in March 2021 in the city of Palma.

The military continent: Ukrainian militants have launched a rapid activity in Africa

Why does Kiev need the Sahel countries and how does Russia counteract enemy activity in this region

Prior to that, on October 8, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported that Moscow was receiving new evidence that the Kiev regime was openly supporting terrorist groups in the Sahara-Sahel region of Africa. In addition, the agency has facts confirming that Ukraine cooperates with the Government of National Unity of Libya in organizing terrorist attacks in the Sahel country, including Niger.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.