US rights watchdog cites "a climate of fear" in Uganda oil development project
Oil activities on the shores of Uganda’s Lake Albert have triggered widespread suffering among locals facing forced displacement and other violent abuses, a U.S. climate watchdog said Monday
KAMPALA, Uganda — Oil activities on the shores of Uganda’s Lake Albert have triggered widespread suffering among locals facing forced displacement and other violent abuses, a U.S. climate watchdog said Monday.
The report by Climate Rights International says banks and insurers should withhold further funding for an oil development project run by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC.
The project, one of two linked to the planned construction of a heated pipeline that would link Uganda’s emerging oil fields to a port in Tanzania, involves the construction of a central processing facility in a vast zone of shoreline that many locals can no longer access.
The report is the first of its kind to detail serious allegations against CNOOC, one of a number of partners in the project. Based on dozens of interviews, it cites forced evictions, inadequate or nonexistent compensation for land and other assets, coercion and intimidation in land acquisition, loss of livelihood and sexual violence.
Dozens of interviewees accused Ugandan government troops of responsibility for forced evictions, destruction of fishing boats, violence, “and creating a climate of fear,” it said.
Brad Adams, executive director at Climate Rights International, said it was “appalling that a project that is touted as bringing prosperity to the people of Uganda is instead leaving them the victims of violence, intimidation and poverty.”
The CNOOC-run project, known as Kingfisher, “is not only a dangerous carbon bomb but also a human rights disaster,” he said
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