(Nairobi) An East African court on Wednesday rejected legal action against a mega-pipeline project by French company TotalEnergies in Uganda and Tanzania, the target of strong criticism from environmental and human rights associations.
The East African Court of Justice, located in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, declared itself incompetent to rule on this legal action filed in 2020 by several civil society groups, on the grounds that it had was filed too late.
The TotalEnergies megaproject, called EACOP and which was the subject of a ten billion dollar investment agreement with Uganda, Tanzania and the Chinese company CNOOC, includes the drilling of 419 wells in the west of Uganda and the construction of a 1,443 kilometer heated oil pipeline connecting the Lake Albert fields to the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean.
Defended by President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986, this project arouses strong opposition from environmental defenders, who believe that it threatens the fragile ecosystem and the populations of the region.
Civil society groups who approached the East African Court of Justice denounced an “unjust” decision.
“The judgment demonstrates a continuity in the way in which countries of the North and various government institutions in Africa remain blind to the destruction of the environment and the impact of oil and gas on the climate,” said in a press release Lucien Limacher, from the environmental defense organization Natural Justice which works in Africa.
In September, four environmental groups – Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal and Stop EACOP-Stop Total in Uganda – filed a “climaticide” complaint against the group and its project.
Lake Albert in western Uganda contains an estimated deposit of 6.5 billion barrels of crude, of which 1.4 billion are currently considered recoverable.
Uganda’s first oil is expected to be produced in 2025, almost two decades after the reserves were discovered, a project hailed by Yoweri Museveni as an economic boon for this landlocked country where many residents live in poverty.
