BERLIN, November 18. /TASS/. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a nongovernmental organization from Germany, has filed a complaint to the anti-terrorism office of prosecutor of France (PNAT), accusing the French energy giant TotalEnergies with complicity in war crimes, torture and abductions in Mozambique.
"The oil and gas major is accused of having directly financed and materially supported the Joint Task Force, composed of Mozambican armed forces, which between July and September 2021, allegedly detained, tortured and killed dozens of civilians on TotalEnergies’ gas site," the organization said in its press release.
"The Mozambican army - including members of the Joint Task Force supported by TotalEnergies - allegedly arbitrarily detained dozens of civilians in metal containers situated at the facility entrance between July and September 2021," ECCHR said.
"Internal TotalEnergies documents, including from its security contractor, detail acts of violence against civilians committed by Mozambican armed forces from May 2020, revealing that the company was aware of serious human rights violations carried out by the Joint Task Force in close proximity to its facility before the container massacre," the NGO added.
A complaint was already filed in 2023 against TotalEnergies after terrorist attacks occurred in March and April 2021 in the city of Palma in Mozambique. Affected subcontractors and their relatives blamed TotalEnergies for its inability to ensure a proper security level.
On July 21, the Business Insider web portal said TotalEnergies intends to resume its $20 bln LNG project in the Province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique after authorities met all security-related conditions. The project was started in 2020 and suspended in 2021 after terrorists killed dozens of people, including workers, not far from the projected plant site.