The president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Albachir Macassar, said that, to date, there is no evidence of human rights violations in the gas megaproject in Cabo Delgado, led by TotalEnergies, contrary to previously reported allegations.
“We have taken several steps and, so far, we do not have sufficient evidence to corroborate these allegations,” said Albachir Macassar, adding that the investigation that began in June last year is still ongoing in the field.
According to the CNDH president, the commission collected several testimonies and sought to ascertain the facts from different people and local entities, but without concrete results. “At this point, no one has told us that they even know about the case,” he said.
Albachir Macassar also explained that, despite allegations that 26 people had survived alleged acts of torture, the commission was unable to obtain any information about these alleged victims. “We were unable to gather any information about them,” he said.
The accusations were made in November last year by the European legal organization European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which filed a criminal complaint in France against TotalEnergies for alleged “complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearance.”
In a statement, the ECCHR accused the multinational of directly financing and materially supporting a joint task force that, between July and September 2021, allegedly detained, tortured, and murdered civilians at the gas facilities in Cabo Delgado.
The president of the CNDH stressed that the investigation has not yet been completed, pointing out that cases of this nature require several stages of investigation and repeated visits to the field. “To date, we do not have information that allows us to conclude that human rights violations have occurred,” he said.
The complaint comes after TotalEnergies lifted, in October last year, the ‘force majeure’ clause, declared in April 2021, which suspended its $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaproject due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, and is now in the process of resuming.
Source: Lusa
