The accelerating construction of the EACOP, Tilenga and Kingfisher oil projects in Uganda has ushered in new human rights violations while it aggravated existing ones, a new report reveals. The projects are mainly owned and operated by TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) in cooperation with the governments of Uganda and Tanzania. A follow-up to documentation efforts in 2020 and 2022, the report Heated: Human rights, frontline communities, and oil in Uganda is authored by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) and the Civic Response on Environment and Development (CRED)…

The most serious abuses are happening around the Kingfisher oil sites, where the Ugandan army, police and private security companies hired by oil businesses have been deployed to “protect the sites”, in the words of the officials themselves. Several cases of sexual exploitation were documented around the Kingfisher site, where military personnel have coerced women into sexual intercourse in exchange for freely selling fish, with company staff doing the same with the promise of jobs. The army has reportedly carried out repeated arrests, extortion, and blatant mistreatments of community members to enforce restrictions on fishing, crippling the main source of livelihood in the area and instilling fear among residents. Testimonies spoke of hundreds of people evicted at gunpoint by security forces, with one instance during the COVID-19 pandemic affecting 769 people at once, many of whom were never able to return to their village…

The report also points out that women are suffering the most negative consequences of local economic transformations. “New work opportunities linked to oil have been mainly reserved to young men, while fishing restrictions have taken a toll on a traditionally male economic activity. Women and girls face stronger pressure to provide for their family while being largely excluded from the benefits of oil development,” said Bashir Twesigye, Executive Director at CRED…