Breaking: Ugandan Court jails eight Anti-EACOP activists as crackdown on dissent deepens. MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK » Witness Radio
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By the Witness Radio team. KAMPALA, Uganda—The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court sentenced eight environmental activists to 11 months in prison for “public nuisance.” The court ruled that their protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline unlawfully disrupted traffic in central Kampala. The group includes Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Teopista Nakyambadde, Shammy Nalwadda, Dorothy By the Witness Radio team. KAMPALA, Uganda—The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court sentenced eight environmental activists to 11 months in prison for “public nuisance.” The court ruled that their protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline unlawfully disrupted traffic in central Kampala. The group includes Akram Katende, Ismail Zziwa, Teopista Nakyambadde, Shammy Nalwadda, Dorothy

The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court sentenced eight environmental activists to 11 months in prison for “public nuisance.” The court ruled that their protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline unlawfully disrupted traffic in central Kampala.

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The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a 1,443-kilometer heated crude oil pipeline designed to transport crude oil from western Uganda’s Lake Albert region to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. The project is being developed by a consortium led by TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Company, alongside the governments of Uganda and Tanzania.

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Environmental groups and civil society organizations have raised concerns about its impact. Critics point to the displacement of communities during land acquisition, potential risks to ecosystems, and the project’s contribution to global carbon emissions.

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Campaigners have also criticized companies and financiers linked to the project for failing to speak out. StopEACOP Campaign Coordinator Zaki Mamdoo has argued that corporate silence in the face of arrests is not neutral, pointing to evidence of communication between project developers and Ugandan authorities.

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    • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
      3·
      1 month ago

      Yes, it shows what’s really behind the Chinese government’s engagement. It’s about political and economic influence, making African countries dependent, while China Ignores Climate Change with African Oil Pipeline, as another article published already in 2023 has warned back then:

      The $1 trillion ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) has been poorly executed and with such lack of transparency, that it is hard to imagine the extent of the damage caused by lending vast sums of money to developing nations. A case in point is the African continent and its energy-rich potential.

      Chinese infrastructure projects have not typically had a happy outcome in the recent past. After heavily indebted countries feared their international credit rating would be damaged, China lent to African countries through shell companies …

      The impact of China’s involvement gave rise to concerns about how exactly resettlement will be handled, much like climate and environmental disasters, human rights abuses during the construction of the pipeline and job losses in agriculture, tourism, clean energy and other sectors. The destruction of plateaus and wetlands as well as the potential pollution of Lake Victoria is another concern that was raised before the implementation of the project …