At the time of the Islamic State group’s attack, the oil giant was carrying out a mega-project to exploit a natural gas deposit in the Afungi peninsula. The plaintiffs accuse Total of “being negligent in its risk assessment.”
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A preliminary investigation has been opened for involuntary manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger against TotalEnergies, announced the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP, on Saturday May 4. This investigation follows the filing of a complaint in October by survivors and families of victims of the jihadist attack in Palma, Mozambique, in March 2021.
The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, lasted several days and left a still unknown number of victims to date, among the local population and among TotalEnergies subcontractors. The group was then leading a mega-project to exploit a natural gas deposit in the Afungi peninsula, suspended after the attack.
The group rejects these accusations
The plaintiffs – three survivors and four beneficiaries of two victims – accuse Total of“having been negligent in terms of risk assessment“, according to their lawyers. These are people of South African and British nationality. After having collected their observations and those of TotalEnergies, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office will assess “the opportunity for prosecution, classification or further investigation”he specifies.
“This is a positive step forward and we are happy that the French prosecutor reacted quickly by taking our requests into consideration”commented Nicholas Alexander, South African plaintiff survivor of the attack, who denounces the “share of responsibility” of the oil giant. A TotalEnergies spokesperson, for his part, referred to what the group had declared when filing the complaint.
The oil giant then insisted on “strongly reject these accusations” and to “recall emergency aid as teams” of the oil project “have provided and the means they have mobilized to enable the evacuation of more than 2,500 people” from the Afungi site, about ten kilometers from the center of Palma.