On Tuesday, 26 Ugandans filed a lawsuit against French oil company TotalEnergies in Paris, France, seeking reparations for alleged human rights violations related to the company’s major projects in Uganda. Joined by five Ugandan and French aid groups, the plaintiffs argue that TotalEnergies caused significant harm, particularly to their rights to land and food.
The core focus of the complaint centers around two expansive TotalEnergies projects: the Tilenga exploration, involving 419 oil wells, one-third of which are located in Uganda’s largest national park, Murchison Falls, and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), a 1,500km pipeline passing through several protected nature reserves to transport crude oil to the Tanzanian coast.
The associations involved in the lawsuit stated that individuals affected by these projects have been deprived of their land for three to four years, violating their property rights. This deprivation has led to severe food shortages for some families, as they have received inadequate compensation in both kind and financial terms.
The associations further alleged that certain villages experienced flooding due to construction activities at the Tilenga project’s oil treatment plant. They also claimed that several plaintiffs faced threats, harassment, and arrest for criticizing oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania and advocating for the rights of affected communities.
The NGOs highlighted specific incidents involving activists who faced repercussions upon their return to Uganda after a 2019 case in France that aimed to hold Total accountable for potential human rights violations. These incidents included arrests and attacks against individuals involved in the case.
The lawsuit seeks compensation from TotalEnergies, arguing that the company’s failure to fulfill its duty of vigilance resulted in serious harm to the plaintiffs’ rights to land and food. The groups assert that over 118,000 individuals have had their land wholly or partially expropriated due to the TotalEnergies projects.
According to Frank Muramuzi, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth’s Ugandan branch and a local NGO called NAPE, it is unacceptable that foreign oil companies continue to generate significant profits while communities affected by their projects in Uganda face harassment, displacement, inadequate compensation, and extreme poverty on their own land.
