On 27 April, TotalEnergies announced staggering profits of $6.5bn for the first three months of 2023. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) revealed that in 2022, TotalEnergies was one of the five worst companies for projects linked to attacks against human rights defenders (HRDs). The company is developing the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project in Uganda and Tanzania.
According to the records held by the BHRRC, projects operated by TotalEnergies are linked to at least 42 attacks against HRDs since 2015. As many as 14 of these – a third – were committed in 2022 alone.
Specifically, all 13 attacks in 2022 involved activists and defenders fighting against the EACOP project. The French oil giant is the majority shareholder in the pipeline.
The 1,443km-long pipeline will transport oil from Hoima in Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania for international export. TotalEnergies and EACOP project partner China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC) have discovered oil fields with approximately 1.7bn barrels of recoverable oil. These oil fields sit on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda’s national oil company is also involved in the pipeline project.
In September 2022, the Parliament of the European Union (EU) passed a resolution calling for the developers to bring the pipeline development to a halt. It highlighted that the project could have severe impacts on the communities living along the path of the proposed development. Moreover, the resolution suggested that over 100,000 people are at risk of the project displacing them.
A report by Just Finance International identified that communities have already raised issues around insufficient compensation. The project consortium has been acquiring farmland since 2018. Many communities fear that the inadequate compensation will push them into poverty.
As a result, communities and environmental and human rights campaigners have formed an alliance to fight the project. The StopEACOP movement has mobilised multiple protests in Uganda. In addition, it has inspired solidarity actions from groups across the world.
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However, Just Finance highlighted that the Ugandan authorities, police, and project subsidiaries have subjected HRDs helping communities in Uganda to increasing criminalisation and safety threats.
As the Canary previously reported, the StopEACOP international coalition of activists and communities has also been calling for investors to shelve the project.
Coordinator of StopEACOP Zaki Mamdoo said that the company’s huge profits for the start of 2023 demonstrated the need to:
stop the flow of money to reckless fossil fuel companies like Total.
On 2 May 2023, British multinational bank Standard Chartered announced it would not finance the pipeline. The announcement followed pressure from the StopEACOP movement. Significantly, this now brings the number of banks who have distanced themselves from the project to 25. Moreover, nine out of ten of TotalEnergies’ top financiers have confirmed they will not back the project.
Mamdoo called Standard Chartered’s announcement “a victory” for the impacted communities and climate activists across the world who have been fighting the project.
He also stated that the EACOP project and Total’s profits showed how:
TotalEnergies is truly heartless in its relentless profiteering on the African continent. The firm’s ever-growing profit margins are generated at the expense of our communities, the natural world, and an exploited African workforce.
Despite multiple banks confirming that they will not finance the project, the BHRRC briefing showed that it has continued to cause violence against communities and activists.
Police violently arrested four StopEACOP HRDs in December 2022. They arrested the activists without a warrant during another peaceful demonstration. Between the arrest on 9 December and the morning of 12 December, the police kept one of the activists in an unknown location. The authorities also charged the four defenders with ‘common nuisance’.
The BHRRC briefing revealed that police are the primary perpetrators of attacks. The attacks against StopEACOP HRDs exemplify this. In addition, it identified that authorities’ malicious use of the judicial system to criminalise defenders was the next most common type of attack.
What this highlights is the complicity of the criminal justice system in the physical and systemic violence enacted against human rights and environmental defenders. Moreover, this is part and parcel of racial capitalism. This is a system which innately devalues Black and brown lives and exploits Global South communities for corporate profit.
Evidently, it points to a need to abolish all the oppressive machinery of a system which criminalises HRDs fighting for the rights of marginalised communities. Moreover, this system is enabling corporations to commit violence against them.
Climate justice essayist Mary Annaise Heglar argued that:
We have to get rid of this world where human beings are disposable, but systems that we know to be harmful are indispensable.
In short, the BHRRC report shows that we cannot end the era of fossil fuels without first ending the colonial and capitalist system that underpins it.
Overall, the BHRRC recorded over 550 attacks that companies, governments and unidentifiable perpetrators enacted against HRDs in 2022. On top of this, it found that 75% of these were committed against people protecting land, climate, and environmental rights. These include attacks that companies themselves will have perpetrated against HRDs, as well as those they did not commit directly.
TotalEnergies responded to the BHRRC findings. It said that:
In particular we recognize the important role of Human Rights Defenders… We do not tolerate any threats, intimidation, harassment or violence against those exercising their Human Rights to freedom of expression to protest peacefully against our business or activities.
Yet, as the 13 HRDs awaiting court show, the Ugandan state continues to criminalise pipeline protesters. Furthermore, TotalEnergies is continuing to develop the project in a country violating the rights of its citizens.
Fossil fuel and extractive companies like TotalEnergies claim to engage in due diligence on human rights. In reality, however, they operate in the same ways they have always done. Consequently, marginalised communities like those in the path of the EACOP project continue to pay the price. But as long as it doesn’t impact the company’s bottom line, anything goes. By Hannah Sharland, Canary
Asia Abdelmajid, 80, was killed in a crossfire as the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued their bloody conflict on the streets of Sudan's capital.
An acclaimed actor, Abdelmajid burst onto the scene in a 1965 production of the play Pamseeka, which was performed at the national theatre in Omdurman to mark the anniversary of Sudan's first revolution against a coup leader. She was considered a pioneer in her craft and later became a teacher.
Abdelmajid's family told the BBC she was buried just hours after her shooting on Wednesday morning in the grounds of a kindergarten where she had been most recently working.
It is not clear who fired the shot that killed her during ongoing clashes in the northern suburb of Bahri, or Khartoum North.
Footage emerged on Thursday of army soldiers celebrating in Khartoum North as they claimed victory over the RSF in the city. The army says it has been patrolling the area around Khartoum's airport, looking to flush out RSF fighters.
Eyewitnesses told MEE that there was still fighting around key strategic buildings in the airport district, including the army headquarters and the presidential palace. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) air strikes are ongoing, with an Egyptian military source telling MEE that Egyptian pilots are flying some of the planes.
Seeking to upset its rival's aerial supremacy, the RSF has reportedly taken in a new supply of man-portable air-defence systems, known as Mpads.
More than 500 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured since fighting broke out in Sudan on 15 April. About 334,000 people are estimated to have been internally displaced, and over 100,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UN.
MEE yesterday revealed previously unreported details relating to the early hours of the fighting, including an RSF assault on the residence of SAF commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the timeline of attacks, and the seizure in March of large quantities of gold disguised as cookies on a Russian flight at Khartoum airport.
As the fighting continues, the security and humanitarian situation in Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman is deteriorating.
Sources on the ground told MEE that banks and markets across Khartoum have been looted by gangs, some with the assistance of the RSF. Petrol stations are all out of service and most of the gold markets have been looted.
In Khartoum, 61 percent of health facilities are closed and only 16 percent are operating as normal, leaving millions of people without access to healthcare, the UN said. Residents of the city have told MEE about a serious shortage of affordable food and medicines.
Violence is ongoing in other parts of Sudan, including in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, and Geneina, the capital of West Darfur.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reported on Wednesday that at least 191 people had died in fighting in Geneina. The NRC also reported the "mass looting of aid".
Sources on the ground told MEE that a ceasefire in North Darfur was holding up. Elsewhere, particularly in the capital, ceasefires brokered by regional and international powers have not been maintained.
Cameron Hudson, a former CIA analyst and senior associate at the CSIS Africa Program, told MEE that the announcement of ceasefires had much to do with public relations.
“Both sides share an interest in creating an impression among the international community that they are cooperating with calls for ceasefires and that they are acting responsibly,” he said.
Slain State Minister for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, Col (rtd) Charles Okello Engola is expected to be buried on May 13 at his ancestral home in Awangi village, Iceme sub county Oyam District, government has said.
Col (rtd) Engola who doubled as Oyam North County Member of Parliament, was shot Tuesday morning by his bodyguard, Pte Wilson Sabiiti at his home in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb.
Gender Minister, Betty Amongi told this publication Wednesday that the Engola’s body will be taken to Parliament next week on Tuesday at 10am for the legislators to pay their last respect.
Thereafter, the body will be transferred back to the funeral home at around 5pm.
A requiem mass will be held at Kololo Independence ground on Wednesday with President Museveni as the chief mourner.
After the Kololo service, the body will be transferred to the deceased’s home in Kyanja at around 3pm for an overnight vigil.
On Thursday, the body will be airlifted to Oyam District where a joint Lango sub- region council meeting will be held at Boma grounds at 10 am to pay their tribute.
At 3pm, a church service will be held at St Nathan Church of Uganda for requiem services.
On Friday, the body will be returned Engola’s ancestral home ahead of his burial on Saturday (May 13). By JANE NAFULA , Daily Monitor
Former Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Eliud Wabukala has asked Christians to strictly adhere to biblical teachings as a way to get rid of what he termed religious conmen.
Wabukala said the discovery of a dozen of graves in Shakahola forest within Kilifi County is a clear indication that many Christian flowers have been indoctrinated.
The retired Arch Bishop spoke at Ruthimitu Mixed Secondary School in Nairobi during the launch of the schools’ alumni chapter and career day.
Over 110 bodies have been exhumed in shallow graves in a farm believed to be owned by controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzi.
Reports indicate that the pastor of Good News International Church might have brainwashed his followers to starve to death in the guise of fasting to meet Jesus..
Chief Government pathologist Johansen Oduor said some of the victims were starved to death while others had underlying health issues.
Mackenzi is being held by police as further investigations go on.
Wabukala said the scenes witnessed from Shakahola is a sign of existence of so many cults in the country where innocent people are being recruited fake Pastors.
According to him, some of the ‘fake Pastors’ are taking advantage of the high level of poverty in the country to play with people's psychology to have an easy way of recruiting them into their Churches.
"What is happening in Shakahola and in other places where people are being taken hostage in the name of prayers needs to be an eye opener to Christians who must realise that there is a surge in the number of fake preachers advancing false doctrines that are not aligned with true biblical teachings,” he said.
Wabukala said both the government and members of public must collaborate in efforts to expose such characters.
He was accompanied by Captain Mark Koross of the Kenya Airways.
The duo advised students to work hard in school and stop relying on free things.
"I kindly advise you to work hard in school and after your education use the knowledge you have gained as you transition to university or college to be a better person,” said Wabukala.
He advised students not to rely on free free things saying that they are mostly expensive and can lead to youths being introduced to satanic cults.
Wabukala called on the Kenyan society especially the youth to use the social media paltforms with caution as it remains the major contributor of social and behavioral decay.
In his sentiments, Captain Koross who is also a chief pilot instructor at Westrift Aviation based at the Wilson said it is also essential for the Kenyan youth to be encouraged to desist from the use of drugs.
Koross said the usage of drugs by the youth has contributed greatly to their indiscipline and unrest in schools and institutions of learning.
"There is no championship in drug use, participating in criminal activities or in disobeying your teachers and mentors,” he said. By Collins Kweyu, The Standard
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance has recused Eldas MP Adan Keynan from the bipartisan talks committee, following demands by Azimio la Umoja coalition.
Keynan has been replaced by Saku MP Dido Rasso.
Azimio demanded that Kenya Kwanza replace Keynan if they were to end the demonstrations.
“We have nominated the Hon Dido Rasso MP Saku to replace Adan Keynan in the bipartisan Committee,” a statement signed by Leader of Majoirty in the National Assembly Kimani Ichung’wah read.
Earlier, Azimio had offered to call off Thursday’s protests to give dialogue a chance.
In a statement by the coalition’s co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka on Wednesday, May 3, the coalition said they will only call off the protests if Kenya Kwanza recuses Adan Keynan from the bipartisan talks team..
“We, in Azimio la Umoja One Kenya announce, on a without prejudice basis, that we are prepared to go back to the Bipartisan talks with our opposite side in Kenya Kwanza and are prepared to stand down the demonstration scheduled for tomorrow Thursday, 4th May 2023, provided that Kenya Kwanza recuses Keynan from the bipartisan committee,” Kalonzo stated.
“[Kenya Kwanza should] immediately announce his replacement on the said committee,” he added.
While attending a Church service at the Cathedral of Praise Ministries International on Sunday, April 30, Kalonzo mentioned the same.
“We made an offer last Sunday to Kenya Kwanza as the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya leadership on Bipartisan talks. All our other conditions remain the same."
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The coalition started countrywide demonstrations on March 20 and later scheduled them for Mondays and Thursdays weekly.
They later took a break to allow bipartisan talks between the two coalitions, which have since stalled.
The talks stalled after Kenya Kwanza picked Eldas MP Adan Keynan, an MP elected on a Jubilee ticket as a member of the committee.
However, Kenya Kwanza argued that Azimio had picked Pokot South MP David Pkosing, who was elected on a Kenya Union Party.
KUP has shifted allegiance to Kenya Kwanza, from Azimio.
After the stalemate, Azimio resumed protests on Tuesday, May 2.
The coalition is calling on the government to lower the cost of living, review 2022 election results, electoral reforms, reinstatement of four embattled commissioners among others. By Winfrey Owino, The Standard
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