Commenting on the Politico report 'All Must Be Beheaded' about Mozambican troops carrying out rapes and murders at a TotalEnergies facility in Afungi.

Here is a link to the Politico article: https://www.politico.eu/article/totalenergies-mozambique-patrick-pouyanne-atrocites-afungi-palma-cabo-delgado-al-shabab-isis/

Here is a link to the original LI posting: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/royce-de-melo-39172813_all-must-be-beheaded-revelations-of-atrocities-activity-7245105205053153280-E2CB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

27 September-- Here are my two cents about this in-depth investigative report. There is a lot to digest.

? Anyone interested in the Mozambique-IS-M war, I highly recommend taking the time to read this report. If this massacre and the atrocities occurred, it is horrific.

? RE: "Establishing that TotalEnergies was aware of the massacre in its container could prove more difficult. The company pulled its personnel from the region following the attack on Palma and the atrocities are not mentioned in its internal reports.?

"There is also every suggestion that the commandos were acting as a rogue force, without the approval of comrades, senior Mozambican commanders, the Mozambican Ministry of Defense or TotalEnergies."?

-- What the Mozambique army (i.e. FADM) and the Joint Task Force (JTF) did in this incident was carried out unilaterally. The report goes into great length and detail (and references) about holding Total legally accountable in some ways for the Afungi atrocities and massacre.

?Sources tell me that local militias were hired to help protect Total's assets as part of the JTF. If local militias were hired to help protect Total assets, directly and/or through the FADM, i.e. the government, the law doesn't allow for armed PSCs, so this would be an obvious contradiction-- although technically speaking the militias would be under government jurisdiction. (If local militias were hired, it would make them a hybrid-PSC/Government militia for hire.) It all sounds corrupt.

As the report points out, the troops to protect Total assets should have been provided as part of their tasks in a war zone.

(Otherwise, hire real professional [foreign] PSCs.)

(When Mozambique was arming towns and villages in Cabo Delgado, I had said at the time that this could bite President Nyusi in the ass. The DRC armed villagers in the east to defend their communities and fight rebels, and these armed people eventually became anti-government militias themselves.)

? The under-tone of this report seemed to me to be anti-energy companies and anti-fossil fuels. It tries to somehow link capitalist energy ventures such as TotalEnergies in Mozambique to an Islamist insurgency, who are ISIS linked, and to war crimes by troops in a counterterrorism war, like it's the company's fault. ?

?Blaming LNG investment in Mozambique for the war and the rise of ISIS-Mozambique (IS-M) is misguided-- it could be a factor, but it's not the cause. Islamists have existed for a long time in history... Ideology, extremism, belief, tribalism and power drive the terrorists of Cabo Delgado. Belief is a motivator. Remember that Bin Laden was from a wealthy family, he was filthy rich... This report ignores the realities of human nature and belief, and how war can bring out the worst in people, period.

?Because local militias were used, I am going to speculate that the Afungi atrocities might be have been motivated by tribalism and/or religiosity. To do what they did with those men and women, for as long as they did in this case, as sadistically as they did, indicates something more deep-seated, IMHO.

?I could add more. Again, I highly recommend reading this report.

?If anyone has more insight, please share!!