Mozambique: Resumption of $20bn Cabo Delgado Gas Project Reignites Both Hope and Resentment

Lead

Five years after a deadly jihadist attack forced its suspension, the Mozambique LNG project — one of the world's largest gas developments — is back online. French energy giant TotalEnergies resumed work in early May, a decision that has rekindled hopes of jobs and prosperity in the impoverished northern province of Cabo Delgado. But the project's second chapter, as detailed in an investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories and reported by RFI and AllAfrica, raises difficult questions about whether the region's vast gas wealth will actually benefit those who live in the shadow of the Afungi peninsula's perimeter fence.

Coverage Comparison

Reporting from both AllAfrica and RFI's English service presents a strikingly consistent picture of the project and its context. Both outlets emphasize the scale: a $20 billion undertaking involving an offshore gas field in the Rovuma Basin with estimated reserves of 5,000 billion cubic metres, supported by international partners including three Indian oil companies, Japan's Mitsui, and the Mozambican state, which holds a 15 percent stake. Both also note the heavy toll of the Islamist insurgency that has plagued Cabo Delgado — more than 6,500 people killed and at least 1 million displaced.

The two sources also converge on the project's physical footprint: 7,000 hectares on the Afungi peninsula, enclosed by fencing, with a paved airstrip at its center surrounded by accommodation blocks and warehouses. Notably, both report that two legal complaints have been filed against TotalEnergies in connection with the March 2021 attack on the nearby town of Palma, when militants overran the community for nearly two weeks.

While the factual core is identical, the framing is subtly different. AllAfrica's report leads with the local communities' potential benefits, while RFI emphasizes the investigative angle — the question of whether the gas wealth will ever reach ordinary Mozambicans. Both share a largely neutral, investigative tone, though their language is not without color: terms like "deadly" and "jihadist" appear in descriptions of the insurgency.

Key Claims

The resumption of the project follows a five-year suspension that began in 2020, when TotalEnergies decided to halt work due to security concerns in the region.

The project's scope is enormous: an offshore gas field in the Rovuma Basin, with onshore liquefaction facilities, among the largest gas reserves ever found.

More than 6,500 people have been killed and at least 1 million displaced by the Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado.

Two legal complaints have been filed against TotalEnergies related to the 2021 Palma attack — one in 2023 before a court in Nanterre, near Paris, and a second in 2025 with France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office. The first was lodged by three survivors and four relatives of victims from the United Kingdom and South Africa; the second by the Germany-based European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights.

The Mozambican state granted a land use and benefit right — a DUAT — to Texas-based Anadarko, which discovered the Rovuma field, and TotalEnergies inherited that agreement when it took over the project in 2019.

The original agreement promised relocation housing, financial compensation, and material assistance, including motorcycles, to affected families. About 184 million meticais in compensation was planned in 2014, but some families are still waiting because the project was suspended.

TotalEnergies said all 643 affected families had been relocated to the village of Quitunda, and by the end of 2025, land compensation activities outlined in the resettlement plan had been completed. Livelihood restoration programmes were also implemented, according to the company.

In September 2025, TotalEnergies signed a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique's Northern Integrated Development Agency to fund job creation and income-generating projects in the districts of Palma and Mocímboa da Praia.

Perspectives

Local Communities' Concerns

Despite the company's assurances, many residents remain unconvinced. "Foreign companies isolate their workers. It does nothing for local development," says Abudo Gafuro, an activist with the human rights group Kundeleya. Locals note that gas workers do not use local restaurants or hotels, nor do they travel by motorcycle taxi — a sign, critics say, that the enclave-like project walled off behind Afungi's fencing offers little economic spillover. The highly securitised nature of the site has added to resentment, particularly as nearby communities continue to face attacks from insurgents.

Residents also point to the still-unresolved compensation issue. The 2014 agreement, which valued compensation at 184 million meticais, was never fully paid out because the project was suspended. As the project now restarts, new questions have emerged, including whether the amount agreed more than a decade ago is still appropriate today.

The Company's Position

TotalEnergies says it has met its obligations. The company reported that all 643 affected families have been relocated to Quitunda, that land compensation activities were completed by the end of 2025, and that livelihood restoration programmes have been implemented. The September 2025 memorandum of understanding with the Northern Integrated Development Agency is intended to fund job creation and income-generating projects in Palma and Mocímboa da Praia.

The security arrangements, too, are framed by the company as protective. In 2020, the project signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mozambican government that provided for a Joint Task Force of around 600 soldiers, including about 10 percent elite US-trained troops known as fusileiros, stationed in and around Afungi. Under the agreement, the project covers the soldiers' accommodation and food costs, and pays them rank-linked bonuses. Any involvement in abuses or human rights violations results in the automatic loss of that payment — a mechanism designed, according to a 2023 internal audit, to reduce incentives for misconduct.

Lingering Legal and Security Questions

The legal complaints filed in France are examining the relationship between TotalEnergies and the Mozambican armed forces tasked with protecting the project. The German rights group ECCHR is specifically looking into whether the financial relationship between the company and the Joint Task Force created a direct link that could implicate TotalEnergies in alleged abuses.

In 2021, payments to the Joint Task Force were suspended after local communities alleged human rights abuses. TotalEnergies says those allegations related to abuse against two fishermen and were not connected to the violence during the recapture of Palma. Nevertheless, Mozambican authorities have not opened an investigation into the events in Palma itself.

Some of those who lived through the attack say the government's own forces committed abuses. "Our own soldiers were killing us," says José Cheila, a Palma-based civil society co-ordinator. The reported death toll for the Palma attack is around 1,500, with several hundred civilians managing to reach the Afungi peninsula and find refuge.

The resumption of the Mozambique LNG project is, for many, a double-edged sword: a source of potential prosperity in a region desperate for development, and a symbol of how the benefits of megaprojects can remain stubbornly out of reach for those who need them most. As the project moves forward, the gap between corporate assurances and local realities will likely remain one of the defining issues of Cabo Delgado's new chapter.