Export-Import Bank Set to Approve Disastrous Mozambique LNG
WASHINGTON — Tomorrow, the board of directors at the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is scheduled to approve support for Mozambique LNG, owned and operated by Total Energies. Grave concerns exist about this project including unsettling reports on severe human rights violations linked to security of the gas project.
These include:
- The Dutch government announced in a March 4 letter that they are starting an independent inquiry into the human rights abuses by the Mozambique security forces.
- The Mozambican Attorney General’s office launched an investigation into these allegations and is preparing a case against “unknown persons.”
- The French state prosecutor is investigating Total for manslaughter, following complaints from families of victims of the 2021 Palma Massacre when Total Energies left their relatives to die.
- A Coroner’s Court in London will convene to hear an inquest determining the cause of death of Philip Mawer, a British citizen who was murdered by insurgents during the 2021 Palma Massacre. He was a subcontractor on the project.
“The human rights violations, armed conflict, environmental impacts and risky economic projections of the Mozambique LNG project should have kept most sensible investors away,” said Daniel Ribiero, Technical coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mozambique. “So the recent decision of the US Exim bank to approve $4.7 billion for a French company to operate in Mozambique doesn’t make sense. Especially since Trump threw a tantrum and recently cancelled a few million dollars of aid to Mozambique’s health sector. This exposes the real focus of his administration – to take funds and resources away from people and transfer them to rich transnational corporations.”
“As the Trump Administration eliminates taxpayer-funded foreign aid – which saves lives and provides disaster relief – it is giving an almost $5 billion handout to the fossil fuel industry,” said Kate DeAngelis, Economic Policy Deputy Director for Friends of the Earth U.S. “This is the pinnacle of government waste and an egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars. Clearly the only aid Trump supports is foreign aid for billionaires and foreign gas companies.”
“The Italian SACE was the first export credit agency to confirm its financial support for Mozambique LNG, and it did so in the absence of a new assessment on the social and environmental impacts associated with the project,” said Simone Ogno, ReCommon. “US EXIM is today doing the same. In these choices we can see the close relationship between PM Giorgia Meloni’s government and President Donald Trump’s government, in complete disregard for the human rights violations associated directly and indirectly with Mozambique LNG.”
The Mozambique gas project is planned in a country with weakened democratic processes that has been wracked with waves of widespread protest since October 2024. Response from the Mozambican government has been forceful. By mid-January 2025, conservative estimates state that at least 314 people were killed and 4,236 had been illegally detained.
Contact: Shaye Skiff, Friends of the Earth US, [email protected]