By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber (www.EnergyChamber.org).

On Feb. 6, 2024, the Anglo-French oil and gas company Perenco announced that it had appointed a new CEO to replace the incumbent Benoît de la Fouchardière, who has served in this capacity for the last eight years. In a press release, London-headquartered Perenco noted that de la Fouchardière would be replaced by Armel Simondin, the general manager of the company’s Cameroonian division, effective March 15.

At first glance, this press release reads like an unremarkable notice of corporate personnel turnover. It hails the achievements of de la Fouchardière, who is now slated to take the helm at Dixstone, an affiliate of Perenco. It also includes an upbeat statement from chairman François Perrodo about the company’s prospects under Simondin, a long-time employee of Perenco as well as an industry veteran.

In other words, it reads like a short statement about an ordinary example of change in leadership.

In my perspective, however, it’s an overly modest tribute to an extraordinary person. It doesn’t say enough about the contributions de la Fouchardière has made to Perenco’s operational and socioeconomic successes in Central Africa, which is home to about half of the company’s assets.

And those contributions are substantial.

Operational Successes

On the upstream front, de la Fouchardière has led the company in expanding its portfolio through Central Africa while also lifting production. Between 2017 and 2020, for example, he guided Perenco through the acquisition of most of TotalEnergies’ Gabonese assets. Then in mid-2022, he steered Perenco’s acquisition of Glencore’s upstream portfolio in Chad, thereby adding the large and untapped Badila and Mangara fields to its list of assets.

Later in 2022, de la Fouchardière also oversaw the company’s announcement of a large new oil discovery at the Pointe Noire Grand Fond Sud licence located off the coast of the Republic of Congo. And in 2023, he led Perenco through the signing of a contract for Rio del Rey (RDR), a concession in Cameroon that accounts for about 70% of the country’s total crude production.

De la Fouchardière has also championed Perenco’s efforts to develop its natural gas value chain by moving beyond production. During his term, the company began the process of transforming Gabon into a gas hub. It has, for example, agreed to work with Gabon’s Ministry of Oil and Gas to develop plans for the construction of a thermal power plant (TPP) that will use locally produced gas as feedstock for electricity production. This project is expected to help alleviate energy poverty within Gabon, thereby ensuring that the country gains direct benefits from its own natural resources.

The company has also made a final investment decision (FID) on a plan to build a facility capable of turning out 0.7 million tonnes per year (tpy) of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This facility, located in Cap Lopez, will also be able to manufacture liquid petroleum gas (LPG). As such, it will be able to process gas to produce LNG for export as well as LPG for domestic and regional use.

This is important, as LNG exports can generate revenue for Perenco — and also for the government of Gabon, which is entitled to a share of profit production. But the benefits don’t end there. The LNG project also helps supply Gabon and other Central African states with LPG, a clean-burning fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting that can replace traditional biomass-based fuels such as wood and charcoal and dirtier-burning petroleum products such as kerosene.

Environmental and Social Initiatives

That brings me to another point — namely, what Perenco has accomplished on the environmental and social fronts.

De la Fouchardière outlined some of his company’s achievements in an interview with The Africa Report in February. He noted that Perenco had worked to develop new technologies and procedures to minimize environmental risk and asserted that it had gone further in this direction than other international oil companies (IOCs).

“With our subsidiary Petrodec, we are the only ones to have launched a complete dismantling of oil wells that have ceased production and [taken] ad hoc environmental measures. Today Petrodec is working on two rigs in the UK, in the North Sea, but tomorrow its services could be called upon anywhere – for example, in Africa – to ensure the definitive closure of extractive sites,” he explained.

He also pointed out that the company was working with local government bodies to mitigate pollution and environmental damage wherever it occurred. “Despite everything, accidents can still happen and this is true for Perenco as it is for most oil groups,” he told The Africa Report. “In this case, we are doing everything we can to contain and treat the pollution, as we have just done in Gabon, in close collaboration with the relevant authorities.”

Additionally, de la Fouchardière stressed the company’s commitment to cooperation and good relationships with host communities. Perenco has launched multiple social and economic development initiatives to support the residents of the places where it operates and will continue to do so, he said.

“As for relations with local communities, we have a very specific corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy,” he stated. “Unlike other companies, we have not delegated it to external service providers but have internalised it because it is a question of responding to the real needs of the populations we meet on the ground. In Muanda [Democratic Republic of Congo], for example, our teams live among the population, including expatriate engineers. In consultation with local stakeholders, we have launched projects to improve access to electricity, education, and agroforestry as well as search for solutions to better preserve fish to be sold in Kinshasa.”

Virtuous Circles

These statements hardly come as a surprise to me and my colleagues at the African Energy Chamber (AEC). After all, de la Fouchardière spoke to us in April 2023 about similar steps Perenco has taken in Central Africa and beyond.

“From the beginning, Perenco has been engaged with the Republic of Cameroon to have a positive impact at local, regional, and national levels. At the national level, through revenues generated by our activity, employment, and training of young Cameroonians from all regions and all disciplines. Locally, we are working with IECD [Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement], a non-governmental organization partner, to develop micro-entrepreneurial initiatives, teaching people to learn how to manage funds and reinvest effectively,” he said.

He continued: “[From] a global standpoint, we are engaged in a global initiative to remove plastic waste from the countries where we operate: Plastic Free. We are developing a pyrolysis machine at a small scale and another at an industrial scale (to be installed in Cap Lopez in Gabon). It will clean the plastic from the country and use it to produce diesel in a virtuous circle, also reducing the need for diesel imports.”

What’s more, this isn’t the only virtuous circle Perenco has set in motion. Under de la Fouchardière’s leadership, the company has maintained a policy of hiring a majority-African workforce for all of its operations — and it has increased the number of women working in the oil and gas industry. It has worked to maximize local content across its African portfolio, and it has sponsored football competitions in Cameroon and organized annual marathons in Gabon.

These are just some of the reasons why I believe de la Fouchardière deserves a round of applause. As the managing director of Perenco, he has driven the company’s successful expansion into new territory and has kept it on course to become one of the biggest investors and taxpayers in Central Africa. At the same time, he’s worked to uphold Africans and African interests. We at the African Energy Chamber are fortunate to have worked with him, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

UN experts* today expressed grave concern about the confirmation of the death sentences against seven individuals by Egypt’s highest court on 24 January 2024, in the so-called “Helwan Brigade” counter-terrorism case. Their executions would constitute arbitrary killings in violation of the right to life as a result of unfair trials and other human rights violations, they said.

“Capital punishment may only be carried out after a legal process that guarantees all of the safeguards required by international human rights law,” the experts said.

The experts said these cases allegedly involved grave violations of international law, including enforced disappearances and incommunicado detention, torture and forced confessions, denial of access to lawyers and family visits, protracted pre-trial detention, solitary confinement, inhuman detention conditions, and mass trials before special terrorism courts which did not meet fair trial standards.

“Egypt has also failed to independently and effectively investigate and remedy these alleged violations as required by international and Egyptian law,” they said.

The death sentences further violate international law because they are based on convictions for vague and overly broad terrorist offences, including when these may not meet the threshold of “most serious” crimes. There is also a real risk that executions in practice may constitute prohibited torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

“We urge Egypt to halt these executions, to independently investigate the alleged human rights violations and review the judicial proceedings in light of Egypt’s international obligations,” the experts said.

UN experts have previously called on Egypt to suspend executions following repeated allegations of unfair trials in terrorism cases. “We are profoundly concerned that these cases are not isolated but seem to be part of a systematic misuse of counter-terrorism and national security laws, including to impose the death penalty, which undermines human rights and the rule of law,” the experts said.

The experts also urged Egypt to consider abolishing the death penalty, in light of the pro-abolitionist spirit of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2023.

Note: The seven individuals are Magdy Muhammed Ibrahim Ibrahim, Mahmoud Attia Ahmed Abdulghany, Abdulwahab Mostafa Muhammed Mostafa, Musab Abdulhamid Khalifa, Abdullah Nader Al-Sharqawy, Abdulrahman Issa Abdulkhaliq, and Mahmoud Al-Sayed Amin. 

*The experts: Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Aua Baldé (Chair-Rapporteur), Gabriella Citroni (Vice-Chair), Angkhana Neelapaijit, Grażyna Baranowska, and Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances;  Matthew Gillett (Chair-Rapporteur), Priya Gopalan  (Vice-Chair on Follow-Up), Miriam Estrada-Castillo, and Mumba Malila – Working Group on arbitrary detention.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

A multidisciplinary team of experts appointed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) conducted a comprehensive imPACT Review in Comoros at the end of 2023 to advise the Ministry of Health on cancer control needs and priorities. All aspects of the cancer control continuum were reviewed, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care. Findings from the mission are intended to inform the development of a National Cancer Control Plan and pave the way for introducing radiation medicine to the country in a safe and secure manner. 

“The Comorian government is committed to the fight against cancer. Following the recommendations of WHO, IAEA and IARC experts, a roadmap has been drawn up to strengthen cancer control capacity in Comoros for the benefit of the Comorian population,” shared Minister of Health Loub-Yakouti Attoumane in the weeks following the mission. This commitment was also evident during the mission, as a multidisciplinary team of national experts worked alongside the international team to provide guidance, counsel and context.

Comoros extends across over several islands, and the cancer situation is difficult to ascertain because the country does not have a population-based national cancer registry (a point that experts from IARC were keen to see addressed as it ensures that cancer patients are only counted once and then tracked throughout the care they receive in different institutions). In 2022, it was estimated that there were 619 new cases of cancer in Comoros’ population of 836 000 people, and 418 cancer related deaths (Globocan 2022). Cervical, prostate and breast cancers are the most prevalent forms of cancer and mortality rates are high (42 per cent of all cancer related deaths in the country are caused by these three cancer types).

WHO attributes 45 per cent of all deaths in the country to non communicable diseases, including cancer.  Radiation medicine can help in approximately 50 per cent of all cancer cases, but there are currently no radiotherapy services available in Comoros. However, preparations for such services are well underway.  

“Comoros is actively engaged in setting up the foundations for strengthening cancer control in the country, particularly in ensuring the safety of patients and healthcare workers interacting with radiation medicine and the security of radioactive sources,” said Ali Mohamed Ali, Director General of Higher Education and Research, Ministry of National Education and IAEA National Liaison Officer. “To that effect, a law is currently under consideration to create the national radiation protection regulatory body to advance on these priorities,” he added.  

One key recommendation from the mission experts was that a multidisciplinary committee responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring, mobilizing resources and coordinating all aspects of cancer control in the country should be created. Discussions also took place with a view to increasing the prevention and early detection of breast and cervical cancer in women – two cancers that together are responsible for more than one in two woman and girl’s deaths from cancer in the country (Globocan 2022). 

Civil society organizations such as the Comorian Association for the Fight against Woman and Girl’s Cancers (Association Comorienne de Lutte contre le cancer chez la Femme or ACCF), in partnership with the WHO Comoros country office, are actively involved in screening and detecting cervical cancer at the local level. Experts from the imPACT Review mission applauded these efforts and provided advice to see these services integrated more fully into the primary healthcare package on offer for women, alongside vaccination against the HPV virus (as the HPV virus is responsible for 99.7 per cent of all cervical cancer cases worldwide), and the treatment of pre-cancerous lesions.  

Comoros has requested support through Rays of Hope – an IAEA initiative to expand access to radiation medicine worldwide. “The new legal and regulatory framework currently under discussion is expected to pave the way for this type of therapy to be introduced in the country in a safe and secure manner,” said Michel Warnau, Section Head in the IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation (TC), in charge of the TC programme for Comoros. “Once the comprehensive nuclear law has been promulgated, a number of technical cooperation projects are intended to support on the one hand the operationalization of the national radiation protection regulatory body, and on the other, the therapy related recommendations of the mission [in particular through training of the required specialized human resources],” he added.  

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

President Cyril Ramaphosa has assented to the Judicial Matters Amendment Act, 2023. The Judicial Matters Amendment Bills aim to amend numerous Acts which are administered by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and are intended to address mostly practical and technical changes in various pieces of legislation. 

Some of the notable amendments include amongst others:

•    Amendments which provide for the powers, duties and functions of the Chief Master, some of which were not part of the legislation before. These changes will allow the Chief Master to play a greater supervisory role over the Masters of the High Court and will lead to improved service delivery to the public and to legal practitioners.

•    A provision that allows the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, after due consultation, to determine certain categories of offences which, if the accused pays or has paid an admission of guilt fine, would not result in the accused receiving a criminal record.  

Following the Minister’s determination, persons who already have received a criminal record for the identified categories of offences will have their offences expunged.

•    A provision for the expungement of the criminal record of a person who paid an admission of guilt fine for violating the State of Disaster Regulations which were imposed during the COVID pandemic;

•    A new mechanism to fight corruption, by creating an additional offence to be included in the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act No. 12 of 2004) regarding the failure of members of the private sector or state-owned entities to prevent corrupt activities.  This is in line with recommendations made by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector, including Organs of State (Zondo Commission).

•    A provision that  relates to when a person willfully makes a false declaration in support of an application for a protection order in terms of the Domestic Violence Act, 1998 (Act No. 116 of 1998). The new provision penalises the making of such a false declaration and such a person will have committed an offence. The amendment also   enables applications for a protection order to be made without an affidavit.

•    A repeals of common law relating to the crime of defamation. Various international and local stakeholders and interested parties have expressed concerns about the alarming effect of such offences on journalists and have advocated for their abolition. (The crime of crimen injuria and civil remedies for defamation however continue to be applicable.)

Whilst the amendments may appear to be minor and technical in nature, they will significantly improve service delivery and the efficiency and responsiveness of the justice system in the related matters.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.