BRUSSELS — A French energy giant embroiled in allegations of rape and murder at a gas plant under construction in Mozambique could face legal repercussions in the European Union if it violates human rights outside Europe in the future, the bloc’s top diplomat said.
POLITICO reported last month that a Mozambican military unit operating out of TotalEnergies’ gatehouse at a site in Cabo Delgado massacred and tortured dozens of civilians in 2021.
The soldiers accused villagers who had fled their homes of being members of an Islamist insurgency, then crammed them into shipping containers and subjected them to beatings and starvation over three months. Of those captured, only a small portion survived.
TotalEnergies contracted a Mozambican security unit to defend the plant despite warnings that some soldiers had allegedly carried out human rights abuses. The energy company told POLITICO it had “no knowledge of the alleged events described” nor “any information indicating that such events took place.”
