‘Human Rights Commission finds no evidence supporting abuse allegations in Cabo Delgado gas megaproject’ 26 January 2026

The President of Mozambique’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said on Monday (26) that no evidence of human rights violations has been found in the gas megaproject in Cabo Delgado, led by TotalEnergies, contradicting previous allegations. “We have conducted several inquiries, and so far we do not have sufficient evidence to support these allegations,” CNDH President Albachir Macassar told Lusa. “We heard some testimonies and spoke to people to try to understand, and at this moment no one has told us that they have knowledge of the case, that they have heard of it, or had contact with anyone, because at the time it was alleged that 26 people had escaped alive from this supposed torture, and of these 26 we have been unable to obtain any information,” he added.

The European legal organisation, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), lodged a criminal complaint in France on 17 November last year, accusing TotalEnergies of “complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearance” of locals in the gas megaproject in Cabo Delgado. In a statement, the ECCHR accused the multinational of “directly financing and materially supporting the Joint Task Force, composed of Mozambican armed forces, which between July and September 2021 allegedly detained, tortured, and murdered dozens of civilians at TotalEnergies’ gas facilities”, who were claimed to be fleeing terrorist attacks. In statements to Lusa, the CNDH President said the public institution, which began its investigation in June last year in response to previous accusations and continues to work on the ground to complete its inquiries into the allegations, has no final conclusions yet. He added that such an investigation involves several phases and requires repeated field visits to confirm facts through dialogue with individuals and local institutions.

…The Mozambican CNDH launched its investigation in June into alleged human rights abuses committed by military personnel in Cabo Delgado during the 2021 terrorist attacks. TotalEnergies stated on 27 March that Mozambique LNG, the LNG production consortium, would fully cooperate with the investigation, denying the accusations. The ECCHR noted that it filed the complaint with the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), and that the “complaint focuses on the so-called ‘container massacre’ at the company’s facilities” in Cabo Delgado, allegations initially reported by Politico newspaper in September 2024. The complaint follows TotalEnergies lifting the “force majeure” clause in October, which had been declared in April 2021, suspending its US$20 billion (€17.2 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaproject, Mozambique LNG, due to terrorist attacks. The project is now in the process of resumption.