"Delays and shattered hopes: Uganda still waiting for oil riches"

It was the promise of oil -- billions of barrels of black gold, discovered locked beneath Lake Albert -- and the riches to follow that brought electricity to Buliisa. Roads, piped water, and other unthinkable luxuries came next, as the poor farming village on the great lake's northern shores transformed into a booming frontier town, and Uganda braced for newfound prosperity as an African oil giant. But those fortunes never transpired. The wells were never dug at Buliisa, the refineries never built and taps never turned...

And allegations of environmental damage and human rights abuses surrounding the oil fields have raised questions about resource exploration in one of Africa's great wildernesses. "The beginning was bad, and we foresee that the oil will come, and make matters worse," said Mpangire Blasio Korokoni, who was evicted from his land at Kasenyi, a village near Buliisa, to make way for the oil project...Some 7,000 people were forced from their land in 2012 in Kabaale, about 150 km south of Buliisa, to make way for a refinery and international airport related to one of the projects. The airport is the only site where construction has begun and is due for completion in 2023. Some of those expelled opted for land in return, but waited six years for lots they still don't have title deeds for. "We don't own this land legally," said Innocent Tumwebaze, 30, one of those dispossessed. "We are cultivating it, but with that fear. Because at any time, you don't know what could happen."...

Total and its subcontractor Atacama Consulting have been accused by civil rights groups of making late or below-value compensation payments to 600 people who were tossed from their homes around Kasenyi, where the company plans to build a plant for processing crude. Total denies the allegations, saying it is "limiting relocations and providing support to those concerned".