TotalEnergies is facing a legal complaint in France from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which accuses the energy company of complicity in war crimes linked to its liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. The complaint was filed with France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor and centers on alleged abuses by soldiers assigned to protect the site. The filing raises a major corporate accountability case over a project that has already been marred by violence and disruption.
According to ECCHR, the alleged crimes took place between July and September 2021 after a jihadist attack forced operations at the project to be suspended. The group says the joint task force guarding the facility, which was paid by TotalEnergies under an agreement with the government, included Mozambican armed forces accused of torturing and killing civilians. That creates the core legal question: whether the company’s support for the force exposed it to criminal liability for what the soldiers did.
ECCHR says internal documents show TotalEnergies knew about allegations of violence against civilians from as early as May 2020 but continued supporting the security force. The complaint cites reports that up to 250 civilians may have been held in containers for three months, with only 26 survivors. Those allegations were reported by Politico and included claims of beatings, torture and killings. Because the allegations are serious and potentially criminal, the story hinges on what the company knew and when it knew it.
TotalEnergies has previously said it was not aware of torture allegations at the evacuated site and that its employees left in April 2021 and did not return until November 2021, after the alleged abuses. The company is already under a separate French investigation over whether it failed to help people in danger during the 2021 Islamist attack and evacuation, and it denies wrongdoing. No charges have been filed in either case, so the complaint remains an allegation rather than a finding of guilt.
The complaint points to a broader debate about corporate responsibility in conflict zones, especially when a company relies on local or state-backed security around a major energy project. ECCHR is effectively arguing that support for a force accused of abuses can create criminal exposure if the company knew of the risks and kept backing the operation. For TotalEnergies, the case adds legal and reputational pressure at a moment when it is still trying to restart the project on terms acceptable to the Mozambican government.
