A section of Ugandans in the United States of America have staged protests at the Chinese, French and Ugandan missions in New York demanding them to compel TotalEnergies and Chinese CNOOC Uganda Ltd to back out of the planned heated East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
They say the project will displace people and endanger fragile ecosystems.
The EACOP would run from the Lake Albert region of Uganda (Hoima District) towards the port city of Tanga in Tanzania from 2025 onwards.
The group that also included lawyers and Human Rights defenders asked China, France & Uganda to stop EACOP claiming it’s a “scam” with an intention of plundering Africa.
These marched in protest holding placards from the Chinese Embassy to the French Mission & ended up at Uganda House.
An EU resolution in September urged stakeholders to delay the project by at least a year, raising concerns over human rights and environmental violations. Authorities in Uganda have denounced the EU position.
Eacop is a proposed 1,433 km oil pipeline to take 230,000 barrels of oil a day from oil fields in Uganda to the Tanzanian coast for export.
French company Total Energies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation are leading on the project, supported by the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments.
Related protests denouncing the EU resolution have been reported as the project would potentially benefit the country’s economy and provide job opportunities.
The pipeline route runs through a number of sensitive ecosystems and wetlands of designated international importance
Because of its low sulphur content, the oil transported by the pipeline will require heating above 50C to flow.
When burned, the oil will emit 33 million tonnes of CO2 a year, according to NGOs’ calculations. That’s equivalent to the national emissions of Zimbabwe
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