Content advisory: this episode describes events that listeners may find distressing.

Five years ago, in the small coastal town of Palma, Mozambique, 500 fighters from the ISIS-affiliated al-Shabab group stormed a community living and working beside a multi-billion-dollar natural gas field part-owned by France's biggest company, TotalEnergies. As insurgents swept through Palma, they beheaded and shot men, women and children indiscriminately, among them construction workers contracted to build Total's gas plant.  

British journalist Alex Perry spent almost two years investigating the massacre, and established the death toll among Palma's population was over 1,000 people. Perry’s reporting has since won a Polk Award and a True Story Award, and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.  

Alasdair chats to Perry about his new book, Blood Will Flow: The Murderous Business of Oil and Gas - now longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year - which provides a full account of events in Palma and their aftermath.

TotalEnergies did not respond to a request for comment from The Land and Climate Podcast. The Land and Climate Podcast has not independently verified Alex Perry's account of events, and guests' views do not necessarily represent the editorial views of The Land and Climate Podcast. In November 2025, TotalEnergies rejected accusations of complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearances in Mozambique. Legal investigations are ongoing. See TotalEnergies' past statements on this issue at the links below: 

Further reading: 

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