Leso-too-late, but finally a win

I seem to be on a roll with the good news lately. This issue takes you to Africa's south, because there are two legal news again that are worth your attention today.

In Lesotho, villagers who were ignored for more than a decade finally won their case against the authority running a massive water project for South Africa. In Mozambique, families and rights groups are demanding accountability as new evidence emerged about abuses linked to the conflict in Cabo Delgado.

Also in this issue:
A mass school kidnapping in Nigeria that forced classrooms to close again. Journalists in Tunisia taking to the streets to protest the harshest media crackdown since the revolution. A Peruvian ex--prime minister hiding inside the Mexican embassy to avoid arrest. And Sudan's volunteer networks winning one of the world's top public policy prizes for doing the work international actors failed to do. Plus, so much more (like Uzbek pop).

A human rights group is accusing France's TotalEnergies of complicity in war crimes in Mozambique

What happened:
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a German human rights NGO, filed a criminal complaint in France accusing TotalEnergies of being complicit in war crimes in Mozambique. The case is now with France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor, who can investigate international crimes.

Why this matters:
TotalEnergies' LNG project is one of the biggest gas projects in Africa. For many local communities, it has meant displacement, militarization, and constant insecurity. If held accountable, this case might set yet another standard for what companies can or cannot get away with in conflict zones or war-affected regions.

Tell me more:
The complaint centers on what ECCHR calls the "container massacre." Between July and September 2021, soldiers who were paid to protect the LNG site in Cabo Delgado allegedly locked up dozens of civilians in metal shipping containers at the site entrance. These civilians were fleeing attacks by the armed group Al-Shabab in Palma and were stopped by the army. Reports say detainees were tortured, forcibly disappeared, or executed.

What happened there, exactly?
The (resource-rich) Cabo Delgado province has been in conflict since 2017 as Al-Shabab has attacked villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. And in March 2021, things escalated even further, when Islamist fighters attacked the town of Palma in northern Mozambique. According to journalist Alex Perry, they killed or kidnapped 1,563 civilians who lived near TotalEnergies' gas plant on the Afungi peninsula. Perry was the first to document the full death toll and the later follow-up killings at the entrance to Total's compound, which he reported for Politico in 2024. He called it the "bloodiest disaster in oil and gas history." "Most people have never heard about any of this, partly because Total has never admitted to it," Perry told the BBC.

Who were the soldiers?
They were part of a joint task force (JTF) that was paid by TotalEnergies under a formal agreement with Mozambique's government. It was made up of Mozambican armed forces. Under this deal, TotalEnergies provided accommodation, food, equipment, and bonuses for soldiers. ECCHR says internal documents show TotalEnergies knew of accusations against the Mozambican armed forces from May 2020 but kept supporting the JTF anyway. The only safeguard in place was the option to withhold said bonuses if soldiers committed human rights violations, which ECCHR says "clearly failed."

What does TotalEnergies say?
TotalEnergies denies knowing anything about torture, killings or detentions at the site. The company says its employees left in April 2021 and did not return until November 2021.

Good to know:
This case comes after a seperate criminal complaint filed in 2023 by survivors and relatives of people killed in the April 2021 attack on Palma. In that earlier complaint, TotalEnergies is accused of failing to protect its subcontractors, some of whom were targeted and killed during the attack. In March 2025, the prosecutor in Nanterre opened a preliminary investigation into TotalEnergies for manslaughter and failure to assist people in danger. So far, no charges have been filed. The company denies wrongdoing in that case, too.

What now?
TBD. Despite continued violence and a worsening humanitarian crisis, TotalEnergies wants to return to Mozambique in 2029. The company's plan to reopen the site includes extra costs of around US$4.5 billion (€3.9 billion). These extra costs would be paid by the Mozambican government, even though the country is already heavily burdened by debt and the conflict in Cabo Delgado. Last month, Mozambican and international NGOs accused TotalEnergies of holding Mozambique "hostage" by demanding extremely favorable conditions to restart the LNG project, where Total holds a 26.5 percent stake.

Zoom out:
This case is very similar to the Lafarge case in Syria (France's Lafarge is the first company in the world to face charges of complicity in crimes against humanity; allegedly made deals with ISIS and other armed groups to keep its cement plant in Jalabiya running) or the ongoing Lundin trial in Sweden (huge deal in Sweden; two former top executives of the oil company are on trial for complicity in grave war crimes committed by Sudan's government during the civil war in what is now South Sudan; Swedish prosecutors say the company benefited from Sudanese military campaigns that cleared land for oil exploration between 1999 and 2003.)

A Lesotho court ruled in favor of villagers left out of a dam project that feeds South Africa's water needs

Refresher:
The Katse Dam is a pretty significant piece of infrastructure in Lesotho. It's part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which is essentially this big water transfer scheme that transfers water from Lesotho to South Africa. As a massive concrete arch...