The Palma attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, began on March 24, 2021 and lasted several days. It left a number of victims still unknown to this day.
Seven survivors and relatives of victims of a jihadist attack in Mozambique announced on Monday October 9 that they had filed a complaint against TotalEnergies for “involuntary manslaughter and failure to provide assistance to a person in danger”. The French oil group, which was then leading a mega-gas project in the region, is accused of a series of negligence and of not having ensured the safety of its subcontractors during the attack on Palma, claimed by the group Islamic State, in March 2021.
The exact results of the attack are still unknown to this day. Mozambique reported around thirty victims. But according to Alexander Perry, an independent journalist who investigated for five months in Palma between November 2022 and March 2023, the toll actually amounts to 1,402 civilians dead or missing, including 55 subcontractors of the Total group. Several of them took refuge in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, the Amarula Lodge, then besieged for several days by the jihadists.
A suspended project
Three survivors of the attack and four beneficiaries of two victims now accuse the oil group of“having been negligent in its risk assessment, inconsistent with public statements at the time [de son PDG] Patrick Pouyanné, who assured that security was Total’s priority”, according to Henri Thulliez; the plaintiffs’ lawyer. The complaint is based in particular on two reports from risk consulting companies, made a posteriori, and which highlighted the absence of preventive measures.
“However, the danger was known, several villages had been attacked before the attack on Palma, and the jihadist threat was real.”
Henri Thulliez, lawyer for the plaintiffsto AFP
In 2019, a company competing with TotalEnergies, Exxonmobil, had also given up investing in the project and repatriated its staff.
The attack led to the suspension of the project to exploit a huge natural gas deposit, representing a total investment of $20 billion for Total. Patrick Pouyanné, the group’s CEO, recently said he hoped to relaunch it before the end of the year. “The reality on the ground remains problematic, gas contracts are unfair and the risks for population, environment, climate and economy of Mozambique are extremely high”reacted the environmentalist movement Friends of the Earth, considering that the complaint constituted “one more proof” that “this project must not be relaunched.”