Winchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) – A British contractor trapped during a 2021 siege by jihadists in Mozambique was “unlawfully killed” after refusing to escape by helicopter, insisting women and children be evacuated first, a coroner ruled Thursday. Coroner Jason Pegg told an English inquest that despite being caught in the unrest, Philip Mawer had the “character, the gallantry” to put others before himself.
The siege at the hotel where Mawer and scores of others were stranded came after fighters affiliated to the Islamic State group attacked the northern port city of Palma in March 2021. Mawer, from Shaftesbury in southwestern England, had been based in Mozambique for 18 months, managing the building of camps for workers involved in a nearby natural gas project. The project was being run by French energy giant TotalEnergies, then known as Total, through its Mozambican subsidiary.
Mawer, 58, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as he and those remaining at the Amarula Lodge in Palma made a desperate bid to escape in a road convoy. The “vulnerable” were put in armoured vehicles with Mawer declining a seat and choosing to drive his own vehicle with two passengers, the inquest in the southern town of Winchester heard. His colleague Nick Armstrong told the hearing they had realised that there was “no plan to rescue us and no willingness to rescue us.” “We were all very scared, but he (Mawer) was a strong chap,” he added.
A lawyer for Mawer’s family told the inquest earlier that an estimated 1,400 people died in the violence in Palma. Max Dyck, chief executive officer of South Africa-based Dyck Advisory Group (DAG), said his company had provided about six armed helicopters to the Mozambique government to help in the crisis including evacuating people from the Amarula Lodge. But TotalEnergies denied his company’s requests for fuel, he said, adding that if they had had more fuel they would “quite possibly, probably” have flown more evacuations.
After the verdict, Mawer’s brothers Bill and Mark said they were disappointed by the inquest’s failure to provide answers to their questions. “Why did Total refuse fuel and landing rights to the helicopter evacuation effort? The court heard that many more rescue missions could have been flown with this support,” they said in a statement. TotalEnergies has said that “all the staff of Mozambique LNG and its contractors and subcontractors had been evacuated,” mostly by boat.
The company also insisted it had supplied fuel for the rescue operation. TotalEnergies suspended work on the $20 billion liquefied natural gas project near the border with Tanzania after the attack, but relaunched it in January. It is now facing two legal proceedings in France, including a manslaughter investigation, after seven British and South African complainants accused it of failing to protect its subcontractors.
© 2024 AFP
