PRESS RELEASE Oil extraction industry in Uganda: Serious human rights abuses and escalating threats as project development enters new phase
POLICY BRIEF 12 December 2024 Paris, Kampala, 12 December 2024. The accelerating construction of the EACOP, Tilenga Entreprises et droits humains : and Kingfisher oil projects in Uganda has ushered in new human rights violations while it La Tunisie doitones, se saisir pleinement desprojects instruments aggravated existing a new report reveals. The are mainlyinternationaux owned and operated by TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) in cooperation with the governments of Uganda and Tanzania. A follow-up to documentation efforts in 2020 and 2022, the report Heated: Human rights, frontline communities, and oil in Uganda is authored by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) and the Civic Response on Environment and Development (CRED). It was made possible with Oxfam’s support. “We are deeply concerned about the latest evolutions in the Albertine. Having displaced thousands of people, oil development is now significantly transforming the realities of local communities. Construction works, high inflation, pressure on land, deployment of security forces, and influx of workers have a considerable, combined impact on human rights. All actors – companies, the government, but also financiers, insurers, and shareholders providing a financial lifeline to the projects – should assess their involvement and take urgent steps to ensure they do not fuel human rights abuses,” said Sacha Feierabend, FIDH’s Senior Researcher on business and human rights. Local communities and defenders face fear and repression The most serious abuses are happening around the Kingfisher oil sites, where the Ugandan army, police and private security companies hired by oil businesses have been deployed to “protect the sites”, in the words of the officials themselves. Several cases of sexual exploitation were documented around the Kingfisher site, where military personnel have coerced women into sexual intercourse in exchange for freely selling fish, with company staff doing the same with the promise of jobs. The army has reportedly carried out repeated arrests, extortion, and blatant mistreatments of community members to enforce restrictions on fishing, crippling the main source of livelihood in the area and instilling fear among residents. Testimonies spoke of hundreds of people evicted at gunpoint by security forces, with one instance during the COVID-19 pandemic affecting 769 people at once, many of whom were never able to return to their village. CNOOC, as operator of Kingfisher, has a distinct responsibility in contributing to the shrinking civic space, and is taking no adequate measure to address serious violations on its doorstep.