UK contractor unlawfully killed in Mozambique, coroner says

British contractor Philip Mawer was unlawfully killed during a 2021 jihadist attack in Mozambique, an English coroner ruled, as his family demanded answers from TotalEnergies over why more people were not rescued from a besieged hotel.

Mawer, 58, from Shaftesbury in southwestern England, had been managing the building of camps for workers linked to a nearby natural gas project in northern Mozambique. The project was being run by TotalEnergies, then known as Total, through its Mozambican subsidiary.

The hotel siege followed an attack by fighters affiliated with the Islamic State group on the northern port city of Palma in March 2021. Coroner Jason Pegg said Mawer refused to escape by helicopter, insisting that women and children should be evacuated first.

Those still at the hotel later tried to leave by road convoy. The inquest heard that Mawer declined a seat in an armoured vehicle and drove his own vehicle with two passengers. He was killed when the vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Pegg did not apportion blame for Mawer's death. He said helicopters operated by South Africa-based Dyck Advisory Group rescued 24 people from the hotel on March 25, but their operations were controlled by Mozambican police and further evacuations were not at their discretion. He also said TotalEnergies and other organisations were not obliged to provide aviation fuel to the group, which obtained fuel from other sources.

Mawer's brothers Bill and Mark said they were “deeply disappointed” that the inquest had not answered their questions, including why TotalEnergies allegedly refused fuel and landing rights to the helicopter evacuation effort.

TotalEnergies declined to provide AFP with a statement after the inquest. It has previously said that all Mozambique LNG staff and contractors had been evacuated, mostly by boat, and has insisted that it supplied fuel for the rescue operation.

TotalEnergies suspended work on the $20 billion liquefied natural gas project after the attack and relaunched it in January. It is facing two legal proceedings in France, including a manslaughter investigation, after British and South African complainants accused it of failing to protect subcontractors.