Fossil fuel giants with ECA billions put Mozambique workers & communities at risk of COVID-19

(FOE USA, Washington, 20 April 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has forced large portions of the population to stay home and left millions out of work. Farmworkers, grocery workers, medical professionals, and other frontline workers are forced to put themselves at risk in order to provide everyone with the food and healthcare needed to make it through this pandemic. Ensuring that these frontline workers are safe and have the resources they need is of the highest priority. Yet, in northern Mozambique, companies like Total – the French energy giant – are attempting to put their profits above the protection of their workers. Reportedly, Total, which recently acquired oil and gas reserves that were formerly owned by the U.S. company Anadarko – a company that received $5 billion from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) last September, at first refused to halt or even slow its work in northern Mozambique. They lost precious time and failed to take early action that would have stopped an increase in the number of cases.