People along the route of the proposed 1,443 km oil pipeline talk of confusion, uncertainty and lives on hold. Following the recent signing of accords, the construction of a hugely controversial oil pipeline in East Africa has come one step closer. On 11 April, Uganda and Tanzania approved three key agreements with oil companies Total and CNOOC, paving the way for building to begin on what would be the world’s longest electrically heated oil pipeline. Before the signing, 260 charities had urged banks not to finance the $3.5 billion project. “No responsible bank should finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project well knowing that the economic, environmental, climate change and social risks of the project are too immense,” it read. After the signing, a further 38 civil society organisations in Tanzania and Uganda accused the project of ignoring environmental concerns and lacking transparency. Much of […]