The $10 billion project involves drilling for oil in the Lake Albert region of northwestern Uganda and constructing a 1,443-kilometre (900-mile) heated pipeline to transport the crude oil to Tanzania’s Tanga port on the Indian Ocean.
A recent report from a non-profit organization, which included interviews with numerous local residents, outlines a series of abuses associated with the Kingfisher project. The report details various forms of mistreatment experienced by the local population.
The organization’s Executive Director, Brad Adams, condemned the project, stating that it is deeply concerning that a venture promoted as a path to prosperity for Uganda is instead resulting in violence, intimidation, and poverty for its people.
Brad Adams condemned the Kingfisher project, which is operated by CNOOC and mostly owned by TotalEnergies, as both an environmental hazard and a severe human rights crisis.
The report reveals that villagers in the Kingfisher area faced “forced evictions, often with little to no advance notice” from the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF). Residents described having to leave their homes with only a few personal items, with some homes being cleared and, in certain cases, demolished.
The report also indicated that residents experienced threats and coercion from CNOOC representatives when they protested or resisted the land acquisition. Additionally, families reported being pressured by officials from TotalEnergies’s Ugandan subsidiary and its subcontractors to accept insufficient compensation for their land.
Furthermore, the report noted that since CNOOC and military forces arrived, fishing boats that do not adhere to new regulations are regularly confiscated or destroyed by the army, impacting the region’s main economic activity.
The organization reported that “numerous women” have experienced sexual violence due to “threats, intimidation, or coercion by soldiers” in the Kingfisher project area. Many women reported that soldiers threatened them with arrest or the confiscation of their fish if they did not comply with sexual demands.
Additionally, the organization received reports of sexual violence involving “managers and senior staff” from the oil companies at Kingfisher, including an incident with a CNOOC employee.
On the environmental front, two former employees of China Oilfields Services Limited disclosed that their supervisor, a Chinese national, directed them to dispose of contaminated water from drilling operations directly into the lake or on nearby land.
TotalEnergies has asserted that those displaced by the project have been adequately compensated and that environmental safeguards are in place.
Oil production in Uganda is expected to commence in 2025, and President Yoweri Museveni has promoted the project as a major economic advantage for the impoverished nation.