Maputo, Dec. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - The UK Government has informed the British Parliament that it is withdrawing funding for the Mozambique LNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaproject, led by TotalEnergies in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.
At issue is $1.15 billion (€988 million) in financing from the UK Export Finance Fund (UKEF), confirmed in 2020 by the British Government, a year before the terrorist attacks in Palma that led TotalEnergies to invoke “force majeure” - and to suspend the $20 billion (€17.2 billion) project - which was lifted last October.
"In preparation for the resumption of the project, UKEF received a proposal to amend the originally agreed financing terms (...). After detailed analysis, the UK Government has decided to terminate UKEF's participation in the project," said Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business, Trade and Employment, in a statement to Parliament on Monday, adding that after evaluation, the government considers that "risks have increased since 2020".
"This opinion is based on a comprehensive assessment of the project and the interests of British taxpayers, which are best served by ending our participation in the project at this time. While such decisions are never easy, the government believes that British funding of this project will not contribute to our country's interests," he added.
"UKEF will reimburse the project for the premium paid, reflecting the end of the department's exposure to risk in the project," Kyle said.
Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Saturday dismissed as false accusations of human rights violations in TotalEnergies' mega gas project.
"When misinformation and manipulation of public opinion began to appear at the national and international level regarding respect for human rights in Cabo Delgado, the first thing we did was to send the National Human Rights Commission [CNDH] to Cabo Delgado, which did a thorough, extraordinary job throughout the province, (...) and they did not find the issues that the newspapers and some international investigators are raising," said Chapo.
He said that there is no evidence, in that institution's investigation, of the accusations of human rights violations, which led a European organisation to file a criminal complaint against TotalEnergies for "war crimes".
On 17 November, the European legal organisation ECCHR filed a criminal complaint in France accusing TotalEnergies of "complicity in war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance" of people in that gas megaproject. It accused the multinational of "directly financing and materially supporting the Joint Task Force, composed of the Mozambican armed forces, which, between July and September 2021, detained, tortured and murdered dozens of civilians at TotalEnergies' gas facilities".
The ECCHR said it had submitted this complaint to the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) and that the "complaint focuses on the so-called “container massacre” at the company's facilities" in Cabo Delgado. These allegations were initially reported by Politico newspaper in September 2024.
According to the latest report, with data up to 23 November, from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), of the 2,270 violent events recorded since October 2017, when the armed insurgency began in Cabo Delgado, a total of 2,107 involved details associated with Islamic State Mozambique (EIM), causing 6,341 deaths.
Mozambique's government has given TotalEnergies 30 days to present a timetable for resuming the gas megaproject, which should not wait, it adds, for the conclusions of the audit required on the costs incurred during the period of “force majeure”.
In a resolution of 19 November by the cabinet, reported at the time by Lusa, it is stated that "the resumption and implementation of the project", which was suspended for four and a half years due to terrorist attacks, "should not be conditional on the completion and submission of the audit report" on the costs incurred during that period.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
