NGOs accuse Uganda oil project of 'serious human rights violations'

The $10-billion investment includes drilling for oil in the Lake Albert area in northwestern Uganda and building a 1,443-kilometre (900-mile) heated pipeline to ship the crude to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

Championed by President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986, the project has been opposed for years by environmentalists, who believe it threatens the fragile ecosystem and people of the region.

The 100-page report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Civic Response on Environment and Development (CRED) and Lawyers Without Borders said there had been "disproportionate security measures, repression, land rights violations, forced evictions and corruption" during the project.

It alleged Ugandan troops had beaten and harassed fishing communities, in addition to documenting cases of sexual and gender-based violence committed by soldiers and company personnel.

The most serious abuses took place in and around the Kingfisher oil fields, the report said, noting a "high level of fear".

It said that while demonstrations opposing the mega-project have increased, notably in the capital Kampala, activists are facing increased repression.

NGOs have reported house break-ins, beatings, unlawful detentions and torture, with at least 96 activists arrested between May and early December, according to the report.

Uganda condemned the report. Government spokesman Chris Baryomunsi told AFP that "these allegations are rather ridiculous and unfounded".

The "smear campaign" will not stop the project, he said.

Baryomunsi urged anyone with credible reports of "alleged exploitation of sexual nature or human rights violations to come forward and present it to the relevant authorities in Uganda".

TotalEnergies said in a statement that it expressed its "strongest disagreement" with the claims in the report "that cast doubt on the attention paid to respect for human rights in operations in Uganda".

"In Uganda, as elsewhere, TotalEnergies is transparent about its human rights commitments and their implementation, which have been the subject of numerous public communications," it added.

- 'Violation of international law' -

Some 12,000 families around the pipeline have been displaced, the report said, as have hundreds of households around Lake Albert.

The most serious case dates back to May 2020 during the pandemic when 769 people from the villages of Kiina and Kyabasambu "were driven out at gunpoint and never returned".

The NGOs condemned the evictions and said that without prior notice or compensation they constituted a "violation of international and constitutional law".

There are also fears of inflation due to land speculation, as well as over working conditions on the sites, where at least two people have died in labour-related incidents.

Those who still live in the immediate vicinity of the oil sites also complain "regularly of dust, noise, light pollution and vibrations".

Oil spills are "a serious threat to the environment and public health", the report said, while "the catchment areas of the two lakes are vital to tens of thousands of people across East Africa".

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