Several student activists were apprehended in Uganda on Friday as they marched towards parliament with a petition opposing a contentious multi-billion-dollar oil development plan, as reported by the police and the students’ lawyers.
Their demonstration was against a massive initiative led by the French oil company TotalEnergies, which entails oil exploration in Uganda and transportation of the crude to Tanzania for trade.
Environmental organisations assert that this endeavour is having severe repercussions on local communities and the environment due to ongoing drilling activities in the Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest protected region.
“We have arrested 47 suspects,” Uganda’s police spokesman for the Kampala metropolitan area, Luke Owoyesigire, told AFP, adding that they had been taken to two police stations in the capital.
Samuel Wanda, a lawyer representing the students, confirmed the arrests.
“The purpose of this demonstration was to present a petition to parliament, but the police apprehended the demonstrators en route,” he informed AFP.
The demonstrators urged international financiers to refrain from providing loans for the oil project, citing its environmental impact and negative effects on local communities. Instead, they advocated for funding renewable energy initiatives.
TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are conducting drilling operations in Lake Albert. The lake is believed to contain approximately 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil, of which around 1.4 billion barrels are currently considered viable for extraction.
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline will transport crude over a 1,443-kilometre heated route from northwestern Uganda to Tanzania’s Tanga port.
TotalEnergies has a 62% stake in the pipeline, with Ugandan and Tanzanian state-owned oil companies holding 15% each and CNOOC 8%. Uganda’s first oil is expected to flow in 2025.
TotalEnergies insists those displaced by the project have been fairly compensated, and measures have been taken to protect the environment.