By Witness Radio team.

As the world burns and corporations continue to pillage Africa’s natural resources, hundreds of women from different local communities of West and Central African countries have started their week-long event to discuss holistic actions to put an end to climate injustice.

The Women Climate Assembly (WCA) at Saly in Senegal started this morning and will run from October 7 to 11, 2024. It has drawn over 120 women activists and community leaders from 12 countries across West and Central Africa to address the debilitating climate crisis in Africa.

This year’s assembly is organized under the theme, African women stand together to defend our land, waters, and forests will aim at making bold women-led struggles in fighting dirty extractives and the disguised solutions to climate disasters in Africa and to propose development solutions that center and support women, their families and their communities to enjoy a decent life and livelihoods in a time of a deepening climate crisis.

The meeting is being held at a time when Africa is facing deteriorating climate change, which has caused droughts, wildfires, cyclones, storms, locust flooding, and rising sea levels, among other tragedies. Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Kenya have been recorded among the most affected countries since 2000.

According to organizers, local communities are often the most affected by environmental degradation, facing consequences such as loss of biodiversity, displacement, and health issues related to pollution and resource depletion, among others.

Women, frequently the primary caregivers responsible for securing food and water for their families, bear the heaviest burden of climate impacts. Women from Central and West Africa are rising to tackle the urgent climate crisis affecting the African continent as they play a crucial role in sustainable agriculture, driving community leadership, and safeguarding biodiversity.

“We are asking for them to change the system. We cannot live in this climate – everywhere is hot, there is a lot of sickness, and we can no longer survive. Our plants are dying; our animals are dying. Our sea level is rising, creating coastal erosion and destroying our houses. We need to change things and tell them, leave our climate alone!” says Oumou Koulibaly from Senegal, WCA 2023.

The climate crisis has hit the African continent, its ecosystems, and its people hard. The frustrating irony is that Africa is grappling with the most impacts of global warming. Women’s visibility and voices in addressing this cause are too often underrepresented in national and international climate policy discussions.

Abie Freeman from Liberia emphasizes the urgent need for dialogue with polluters regarding their actions’ detrimental effects on communities. “Everywhere you turn, there are problems. You’ll hear about equity after six or seven years, but we are still here. We need to wake up and do something as women! When we sit there, they will talk over us. We need to wake up and do something that will bring justice to us.”

The 2024 WCA marks the third Women’s Climate Assembly since its inception in 2022. At last year’s gathering, participants produced a powerful declaration outlining demands for climate justice, reparations, and sovereignty for Africa based on consultations from over seventy communities across the continent.

They firmly asserted their Right to Say NO to the destruction of their lands, forests, oceans, and rivers by so-called “development” projects that threaten their ways of life and livelihoods. Additionally, they called on polluters to provide meaningful reparations, informed by the impacted communities, for the historical and ongoing climate and ecological debt owed to Africa.

By Witness Radio team.

More than 30 families in Kasinyi village, Nile parish, and Ngwendo sub-county in Buliisa district are facing displacement by floods caused by Total Energies operations’ exploration activities.

As a result, victim families have now petitioned Total Energies, urging the company to address severe flooding issues that they claim have been caused by its oil exploration activities. The flooding has so far destroyed homes and crops, leaving many families in terrible need of relief assistance.

Total Energies is constructing a 95-kilometer feeder oil pipeline from a planned Central Processing Facility (CPF) in Buliisa to the Kabaale Industrial Area in Hoima district. This pipeline will transport crude oil from the six Tilenga oil fields to the industrial area in the Hoima district.

The Tilenga project is part of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. Due to its social and ecological impacts, it has faced significant criticism from communities, civil society organizations, and environmental experts. Concerns about the displacement of local communities, potential threats to biodiversity, and the long-term effects on climate and ecosystems continue to be raised in the areas it is passing through.

In a petition signed by 32 heads of families, addressed to Mr. Philippe Groueix, Managing Director of Total Energies, and copied to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), the families express deep concern over the flooding that has severely impacted their lives. They claim that the trench excavations to construct the Tilenga feeder pipeline are responsible for the flooding, which has destroyed many homes and crops.

“The flooding, which the pipeline development in swampy lands has caused, and the lack of alternative drainage channels, has affected our gardens and homes. Our properties have been destroyed, yet no one cares about us, not even the project implementers,” said Mr. Tholith Emmanuel, one of the petitioners, during an interview with Witness Radio.

“We depend on farming to make a living, but the floods have caused a complete loss of crops,” he added.

Residents allege that the flooding began after oil exploration and construction activities began. “We have lived here for many years, and this was never a problem before the oil development. After their work started, we experienced heavy flooding, which means there was no proper planning for our area’s impact, ” Emmanuel added.

Another resident, Mr. Katehe Selina, expressed frustration over losing his maize and cassava due to the floods. He urged Total Energies to address the situation promptly to prevent further destruction. “I have lost my crops, and my livelihood depends on farming. If this continues, my community and I cannot meet basic household needs, including paying school fees. The challenge could lead to higher school dropout rates, teenage pregnancies, domestic violence, and other social problems,” he warned.

In their petition, the residents are calling out Total Energies to take immediate action to fairly and adequately compensate the families who have lost property due to the floods be fairly and adequately compensated without delay and to provide proper drainage solutions to prevent further water stagnation and flooding in their village.

By press time, Total Energies had not responded to Witness Radio’s request for confirmation of the petition’s receipt nor provided any indication of how it plans to address the community’s concerns.

By Witness Radio team.

In a glaring display of injustice, the Masaka High Court ruled against 80 Project-Affected Persons (PAPs) from the Lwengo, Kyotera, and Rakai districts on October 1, 2024. The court allowed the government to deposit the compensation in Court accounts, delivering yet another blow to the marginalized communities of Uganda.

Low-income families, smallholder farmers, and landowners who derive their livelihoods from grabbed land are the latest victims of the government’s aggressive push for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.

Last year, the Hoima High Court set a precedent and directed the government to deposit money (compensation) for the 42 households on the court’s accounts. The Project Affected Persons (PAPs) refused the money, saying that it was very little compared to the size of their land.

Article 26 of the 1995 Constitution guarantees the right to property and the right to fair and adequate compensation in cases of compulsory acquisition.

Many low-income families in the southern region of Uganda have made the same argument, rejecting compensation because it is inadequate. Others are embroiled in land disputes, the rightful owners have not been identified, and some households lack land titles. Yet, despite these glaring issues, the government is bulldozing its way through these legal and moral quagmires to serve the interests of foreign oil companies.

The High Court on Monday, October 1st, 2024, granted vacant possession of the affected people’s land so that it may be used for the EACOP project activities. Eviction and demolition orders against the affected people and the applicant were discharged from any liabilities arising out of any claim and/or order arising out of the orders being sought by the government.

The court also ruled that the rejected compensation should be deposited into the account of the Registrar of the High Court.

This ruling attack not only 80 individuals but also the citizens of Uganda, whose lives and livelihoods are rooted in the land they have legally occupied and cultivated for generations.

Witness Radio is concerned that the government is continuously weaponizing our legal system to facilitate corporate land grabs under the guise of national interest. “Such actions are weakening the Judiciary further as citizens continue to lose trust in it,” said Witness Radio legal team.

The EACOP is a planned 1,443km pipeline to be constructed from Western Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. The pipeline is expected to transport crude oil from Uganda’s Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields to export markets.

Key shareholders in this venture, Total Energies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the governments of Uganda and Tanzania, are expected to reap the project’s benefits. In contrast, the communities that would be the project beneficiaries are left with nothing but broken promises.