Uganda: French Court Throws Out Case Against East African Oil Project in Uganda

Pixabay, Gerd Altmann/Pixabay, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons.
Lobby Protests West's Stance on African Oil Projects, Threatens Boycott
1 March 2023
Nile Post (Kampala)
By Kenneth Kazibwe

A French court has dismissed a case filed by NGOs against TotalEnergies over the East African Oil project in Uganda and Tanzania.

In the case filed in 2019, six French and Ugandan NGOs accused TotalEnergies of not doing enough to protect people and the environment from the Tilenga oil development and the $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

The activists wanted court to order TotalEnergies to halt the east African projects, basing their case on a 2017 French law that requires companies to identify human rights and environmental risks in their global operations and supply chains and to take measures to prevent them.

However, on Tuesday, a French court ruled that the six NGOs from France and Uganda didn't follow the right procedures in their case against TotalEnergies.

The court therefore ruled that the case is inadmissible.

Campaigners against Uganda's oil project have in the past suffered several defeats in the move to stop the project.

President Museveni recently assured Ugandans that nothing can change what has already been agreed upon for the construction of the pipeline.

"I want to assure you that the project shall proceed as stipulated in the contract we have with Total energies.

We should remember that Total Energies convinced me about the idea of the pipeline and if they choose to listen to the EU Parliament, they will compensate us and we shall find someone else to work with," Museveni said last year.

Read the original article on Nile Post.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 Nile Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.