French energy company, Total is facing war crimes allegations over a massacre near its multi-billion-dollar international gas project in northern Mozambique in 2021, an allegation it denies.

In a complaint filed with French prosecutors, a human rights group accused TotalEnergies of complicity in war crimes, including the torture and execution of dozens of civilians held by local security forces in a cluster of shipping containers at its facility.

Total has always denied responsibility for the actions of government troops and related security forces who were involved in guarding the Afungi peninsula gas refinery development.

It was the biggest foreign investment project in Africa at the time.

The complaint was filed by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a human rights group.

“Companies and their executives are not neutral actors when they operate in conflict zones. If they enable or fuel crimes, they might be complicit and should be held accountable,” said Clara Gonzales, the ECCHR’s co-programme director for business and human rights.

The massacre by Mozambican forces took place in resource-rich Cabo Delgado province, where government troops were battling violent Islamist militants, linked to the Islamic State group, with a gruesome reputation for beheading victims.

In March 2021, Islamists attacked the besieged town of Palma, where they killed or kidnapped 1,563 civilians living next to TotalEnergies gas plant on Mozambique’s remote northern Afungi peninsula, according to Alex Perry.

The investigative journalist first documented the Palma death toll, and the subsequent reprisal massacre at the entrance to Total’s compound for Politico in 2024.

Perry called it the “bloodiest disaster in oil and gas history”.

Locals who sought help from the forces at the Total facility were accused of aiding the insurgents. Men were separated from the group by force and held in shipping containers. The exact number of civilians subsequently killed by Mozambican forces providing security for Total is not clear. Perry identified 97 victims but estimates the true figure could be double that.

“Most people have never heard about any of this, in part because Total has acknowledged none of it. Today is a victory for truth, and accountability.”