TotalEnergies refused rescue aid during deadly Mozambique attack, inquest hears – POLITICO

WINCHESTER, England — TotalEnergies refused fuel to helicopters evacuating civilians as Islamist militants overran the Mozambican town of Palma in 2021 and later denied British special forces use of its nearby construction site for a rescue mission, a British inquest heard this week.

The four-day hearing in Winchester was a coroner’s inquest, a British judicial proceeding to establish how and why Philip Mawer — a 58-year-old British construction contractor working on the French energy giant’s gas plant project — was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while fleeing the assault.

The claims emerged in testimony and evidence presented during the hearing; the coroner did not, however, find that TotalEnergies’ decisions affected rescue efforts, saying Mawer’s security was the sole responsibility of his employer, a Dubai-based contractor, and the hotel at which he stayed.