TotalEnergies said on Thursday that it had entrusted former Beninese Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou with a mission to evaluate the land acquisition program carried out as part of its controversial oil development projects in Uganda and a pipeline in Tanzania.

The Tilenga oil drilling and EACOP (East African Crude Oil Pipeline) pipeline projects, led by the French hydrocarbon giant in collaboration with the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments, have come in for fierce criticism from environmental and human rights organizations.

Last July, Human Rights Watch denounced the project as an environmental disaster, and claimed that the construction of the pipeline had deprived tens of thousands of people of their livelihoods, due to the expropriation of their land and the late and inadequate payment of compensation.

TotalEnergies, which has rejected these accusations, said that its CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, had entrusted Lionel Zinsou, founder of SouthBridge's Managing Partner consultancy, with the task of assessing the way in which the program to acquire 6,400 hectares of land in Uganda and Tanzania, which is nearing completion, has been carried out, "as well as the socio-economic development actions accompanying this program".

The economist is due to deliver his report by the end of April, says TotalEnergies in a press release, which undertakes to share the findings with its partners in the two projects.

(Written by Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault)