Oil drilling by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies is disturbing wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest and most-visited protected area. This is according to a briefing by environmental advocacy group Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), which warns that noise pollution is driving animals out of the park, leading to increased conflict with nearby communities. AFIEGO says that between the start of drilling operations last year and April 2024, five people have been killed by elephants moving outside the park into the neighboring district of Buliisa. It also reports that people living around the park have threatened retaliatory killings of wild animals. Since the start of drilling, TotalEnergies has requested permission to deploy a second rig in the park. Dickens Kamugisha, executive director of AFIEGO, told Mongabay he was surprised the company would seek to expand its operations. “Total had promised minimal activities in the park,” he said. “Why is it now saying we want to conduct more activities?” John Makombo, director of conservation at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the government agency that manages parks, rejected AFIEGO’s briefing as “rumormongering,” saying the NGO has no capacity to assess impacts on the park. “Get proper scientific studies,” he told Mongabay. “When AFIEGO people tell you that elephants are being pushed away by oil and you’re there you don’t want to do research, you write rumors.” AFIEGO reached its conclusions about the development of the Tilenga field by mapping TotalEnergies’ activities in the park using satellite images and…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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