NGOs sue US EXIM bank over $4.7 bn Mozambique gas loan
Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a $4.7 billion loan by US credit export agency EXIM to TotalEnergies' stalled gas project in Mozambique, the nonprofits said Tuesday.
Construction on the French fossil fuel giant's massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique has been suspended under force majeure since 2021 due to a bloody jihadist insurgency.
The Washington-based Export-Import Bank (EXIM) approved in March the loan to a consortium led by TotalEnergies for the export of LNG equipment and services, after a four-year delay.
International NGO Friends of the Earth and Mozambican organisation Justica Ambiental "filed a lawsuit last night challenging the US Export-Import Bank's unlawful approval of nearly $5 billion in financing for the Mozambique LNG project", the groups said in a press release.
They claimed EXIM's new board of directors was "illegally" appointed by US President Donald Trump and had "rushed through approval without conducting required environmental reviews, economic assessment, or allowing the required input by the public and Congress".
"EXIM's Board charged ahead with subsidizing the project, without considering the conflict and the harms the project will inflict on the environment and local communities, and despite multiple nations' open investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations," the NGOs said.
The $20 billion gas project in Afungi, in the northern Cabo Delgado province, has been at a standstill since 2021 following a major attack by jihadist insurgents on the neighbouring town of Palma.
The French oil giant has said it hopes to restart the project this summer.
Conflict tracker ACLED estimated more than 800 people were killed in the attack on Palma, and French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation against TotalEnergies after allegations that it failed to protect its subcontractors in the area.
Mozambique's public prosecutor and human rights commission have also opened investigations into allegations that government soldiers tasked with protecting the gas site abused, tortured and killed villagers.
TotalEnergies has welcomed the opening of the investigations.
Civil society groups led by Justica Ambiental have long decried the exploitation of massive offshore natural gas deposits discovered in 2010 as a "climate bomb".
"LNG in Mozambique would benefit only the fossil fuel corporations and a small political elite," a spokesperson for the NGO said in the press release.
In a statement, EXIM said it would not comment on ongoing litigation "as a matter of longstanding policy".
"The Bank continues to operate in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations," EXIM said.
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