FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KAMPALA, Uganda (Mar. 12, 2026) — The StopEACOP Campaign is calling out TotalEnergies’ attempts to sanitize their public image through claims of an “independent assessment” of their highly controversial land acquisition program linked to the Tilenga project which will rely on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to transport the crude oil to the global market.
TotalEnergies commissioned the Canadian firm, Land & People Planning Ltd, to conduct the assessment in the districts of Buliisa, Hoima, and Kikuube. The independence of the report is questionable. Unsurprisingly, the assessment concludes that TotalEnergies covered all core components of the land acquisition program and demonstrated its commitment to transparency and continuous improvement.
TotalEnergies also mentions in passing that the original assessor withdrew for health reasons and they appointed the Canadian firm as a replacement without demonstrating how they involved key stakeholders or reassured the public of the transparency in this process, given previous accusations of undue influence over the consultants they employ.
“This report is less of an independent evaluation than it is a reputation-laundering exercise which tries to clear TotalEnergies in the face of community testimony exposing a broken livelihood restoration programme. For the company to claim the Tilenga land process is ready for closure even while project-affected people are consistently going to court over unjust compensation is outrageous. Our message to lenders, insurers and the backers of Total is that they should not mistake this sham assessment for real due diligence.” said Zaki Mamdoo, StopEACOP Campaign Coordinator.
The report fails to mention the coercion, threats, and intimidation project-affected people have been subjected to by the Ugandan government, who are partners in the project, and Total’s employees and subcontractors, to release their land for the Tilenga project. Indeed, the case of 42 families from Buliisa district who were evicted by court order before receiving compensation to make way for the Tilenga Project, has been well documented.
“Courts in Uganda are used as boogeymen when it comes to oil project-affected people. The people report that they are told by sub-contractors working on behalf of Total and its partners that they must give away their land at a pittance. The people are informed that if they refuse low and unfair compensation, they will be taken to courts where they have no chances of winning cases. Indeed, while the organisation I work for is supporting many oil-affected people to defend their land rights through courts, we see bias and a lack of willingness by courts to dispense justice to oil-affected people including the sick, the elderly and other vulnerable groups,” said Diana Nabiruma of Uganda’s Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO). “In February 2026, AFIEGO published a research report that assessed compliance to the EACOP livelihood restoration commitments. The report showed that there were major gaps in the implementation of the livelihood restoration commitments and the affected people believe that if these are not remedied, they will not be restored to their pre-displacement socio-economic conditions. Independent assessments by civil society and other actors are necessary if credible information on Uganda’s oil industry is to be shared.”
The coalition also notes that the timing of this report is suspect, considering TotalEnergies is facing an ongoing case in a Paris Civil Court where the court ordered they release documents they had withheld, including market studies on compensation rates conducted by TotalEnergies’ subcontractors, minutes from its Human Rights Steering Committee and a report on the impact of flooding resulting from their Tilenga project.
“Analysis of the court-ordered disclosure reveals numerous instances of non-compliance with international standards, in particular IFC Performance Standard 5, despite TotalEnergies’ public claims that it aligns with it,” said Camille Grandperrin, legal officer at Friends of the Earth France.
TotalEnergies’ assessment report action plan only mentions 4,954 project-affected-people, which is a small fraction compared to the more than 100,000 people affected across both the Tilenga Project and EACOP. Isolating Tilenga’s land acquisition from the wider oil infrastructure it feeds into, therefore, gives a misleading impression of the number of people impacted. Even if the scope of the assessment was strictly on Tilenga Project, the numbers in this report are way low and are inconsistent with other reports.
In addition, there is no mention of how the flooding caused by the construction of the Tilenga Central Processing Facility has been captured and addressed. This report is a sham and in bad taste, considering the well documented testimonies of project-affected-people – from restrictions of their land use before compensation, which impacts their livelihood to the arrests and intimidation of activists and land defenders who speak out on their behalf. This report should be dismissed.
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For media inquiries, contact:
Abiud Onyach
Abiud Onyach
Digital and Communications Lead
StopEACOP Campaign
info@stopeacop.net | +254700593687
About the StopEACOP Campaign
The StopEACOP Coalition is an alliance of local groups, communities, and African and global organisations. The coalition has been calling for a stop to the proposed pipeline and associated oil fields at Tilenga and Kingfisher. The StopEACOP Campaign is gathering momentum, building pressure on the remaining supporters and financiers of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). To date, 43 banks and 30 (re) insurers have already ruled out support for EACOP.
