Eleven survivors, plus two witnesses, testified that only 26 men survived the ordeal. POLITICO published a summary of a survey that identified 97 victims, and listed their causes of death as suffocation, being beaten to death, being shot, being “disappeared” — taken away and presumably executed — and missing, presumed dead after last being seen in the army’s custody.
Relatives of the victims told POLITICO they had kept silent about the massacre out of fear of reprisals.
Work on the site was halted in 2021 as Islamist militants swept through the region. TotalEnergies and the Mozambican authorities have denied all knowledge of the attack.
In a statement published Tuesday, Mozambique LNG noted that in October the Mozambican Ministry of Defence expressed a “total openness and willingness to accept a transparent and impartial investigation.”
“Mozambique LNG has invited the authorities of Mozambique to carry out such an investigation as soon as possible,” the statement read. “Mozambique LNG will keep following up with the Mozambican authorities as only they can take the investigations further at this stage.”
On November 24, a joint investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde and the investigative news outlet Source Material published similar findings.
