Maputo, Dec. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - Mozambique has not yet been notified of the withdrawal of UK funding for the Mozambique LNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaproject - led by TotalEnergies - in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, the government said on Tuesday.
"The government has not yet been notified about the matter. In fact, just today the government was informed about the steps that must be taken to implement the latest decision that was made to move forward with the Area 4 project," said Cabinet spokesperson Inocêncio Impissa, responding to questions from journalists after the weekly meeting of that body in Maputo.
The UK government informed the British Parliament on Monday that the country would withdraw its funding for the TotalEnergies-led gas megaproject in northern Mozambique.
At issue is US$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 extremist attacks in Palma that led TotalEnergies to invoke a “force majeure” - and to suspend the $20 billion (€17.2 billion) project - which was lifted in October.
When questioned on the matter, the Mozambican executive's spokesperson said that the Government had not received any information on the matter, indicating that the project is continuing as planned, following the lifting of the “force majeure” clause, which had been invoked due to the attacks in Cabo Delgado.
In its reasoning, the UK stated that "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 assessment, the executive considers that "risks have increased since 2020".
Mozambican president Daniel Chapo on Saturday dismissed as false, accusations of human rights violations in TotalEnergies' gas megaproject.
"When disinformation 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.
On 17th November, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights NGO filed a criminal complaint in France accusing TotalEnergies of "complicity in war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance" of people in that mega gas project. 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".
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 people associated with Islamic State Mozambique, causing 6,341 deaths.
The Mozambican government has given TotalEnergies 30 days to present a timetable for resuming the mega gas project, which should not wait, it adds, for the conclusions of the audit required on the costs incurred during the period of “force majeure”.
PME/AYLS // AYLS
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