'Netherlands starts inquiry into Mozambique gas plant massacre’ 5 March 2025

The Dutch government has launched an independent inquiry into human rights abuses by Mozambique’s security forces. As POLITICO reported last year, a Mozambican military unit operating out of the gatehouse of a gas plant owned by French energy giant TotalEnergies carried out a massacre of civilians, kidnapping, raping and killing dozens of local residents in the summer of 2021. “I have asked an external party to conduct an analysis into alleged human rights violations by the Mozambican security forces in the context of the Mozambique [liquefied natural gas] project,” wrote Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen in a March 4 letter to the Dutch parliament.

…According to the POLITICO report, the Mozambican military unit herded between 180 and 250 people into containers at the French company’s gatehouse and kept them there for three months. Only 26 men survived the ordeal; 97 of the victims have been identified. While the revelations sparked criticism from French and European lawmakers, the company’s Mozambican subsidiary said it had “not identified any information or evidence that would corroborate the allegations.” The French company later delayed its gas project in the African country. The launch of an independent investigation by the Dutch side, however, could be seen as a serious signal regarding the validity of the “no evidence” claims.

The Dutch government is providing export support to Dutch company Van Oord to build a pipeline for the LNG project in Mozambique but has halted the support while the project is on hold. The results of the independent investigation will be presented to the Dutch House of Representatives before the Dutch government decides whether to extend export support for the project. The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office also launched an investigation on Tuesday, opening a criminal case into allegations of kidnapping, rape and murder against members of the security services who guarded the TotalEnergies facility.