By Jason Mannet

Kenya’s tea exporters voiced concern about potential blowback from Sudan, a key market for the country’s biggest commodity, after the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary held a symbolic political meeting in Nairobi this week.

The Sudanese government described Kenya’s hosting of RSF, the group which its forces have been fighting in a civil war since March 2023, as “an act of hostility against the Sudanese people,” vowing to take “all necessary measures to redress the balance.” On Thursday it recalled its ambassador to Kenya in protest.

In Kenya, the diplomatic spat has raised particular concern in the tea industry. Sudan ranks among the top 10 markets for Kenyan tea, Nairobi’s biggest export and leading foreign exchange earner. Sudan, at number seven, is the only African nation in a list topped by Pakistan, Egypt, and the UK. Several tea traders in the port city of Mombasa told Semafor that they feared a standoff could mean a decline in exports to Sudan, impacting trade that has already taken a major hit since the start of the war.

With tea exports accounting for around 23% of Kenya’s foreign exchange earnings, a significant decline could have a knock-on effect on the country’s economic growth. “Sudan is one of the biggest buyers of Kenyan tea, so a breakdown in relations could easily become an economic problem,” Ian Mwangi, a Nairobi-based trade consultant, told Semafor. He said it’s unlikely Sudan will impose import restrictions but thinks Kenya needs to protect the sector from any potential shock. “The war highlighted the need to unlock non-traditional markets, which the government has been working on…they’ll need to double down on this strategy to cushion the sector.”

The Kenyan trade ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The RSF had billed Tuesday’s event — attended by dozens of delegates including the group’s deputy commander, the brother of RSF leader Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo — as a meeting to sign a charter establishing a parallel “government of peace and unity.” But the signing itself was called off at the last minute.

The meeting sparked sharp criticism domestically, with opposition Kenyan lawmakers warning of global repercussions. In January, the Biden administration accused the RSF of committing genocide and imposed sanctions on Hemedti.

But Kenya’s foreign affairs minister defended the decision to host RSF, saying it sought to provide “non-partisan platforms to conflict parties to seek resolution,” in line with its broader peacekeeping efforts. Kenya has traditionally been involved in regional peace missions and negotiations, including in DR Congo and South Sudan. Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, however, told Semafor that its perceived backing of the RSF “undermines Kenya’s claim as a regional peacemaker.”

The diplomatic dispute between Sudan and Kenya came as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF escalated in Sudan: At least 61,000 people have died so far, according to researchers, with a further 11.8 million displaced. The UN, which has described the war as the world’s “forgotten” conflict, this week asked donors for $6 million to ease the country’s growing hunger crisis.

Kenyan tea exports to Sudan fell by nearly 74% in the year to March 2024, pushing revenues down from $18.6 million the previous year to just $5 million. But in recent months Kenya had observed a “gradual recovery” in shipments to Sudan, according to the Tea Board of Kenya. Tea exports to Sudan in October last year stood at 1.6 million kg, compared to 1.3 million in the same month in 2023.

“We’re worried this turnaround in one of our key markets might not [now] be sustained,” John Mwashumbe, a trader at Mombasa-based trading firm Chai Poa, told Semafor, referring to the fallout over RSF.

Kenya’s hosting of the RSF at a government-owned convention centre is the latest in a series of moves that have heightened scrutiny of the country’s foreign policy. In November, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was abducted in Nairobi, sparking widespread outrage from rights groups and citizens of both countries. A month earlier, four Turkish nationals were abducted and later repatriated to Turkey, with the UN among other organizations raising concerns. The hosting of M23 rebel group leaders in Nairobi in 2023 for the formation of a political military alliance also led to tensions with DR Congo.

In this case, it is tea farmers and traders who could feel the pinch. Tea is integral to Kenya’s economy: In the first 10 months of 2024 alone, the country earned about $1.2 billion from tea exports. The diplomatic row creates new uncertainty in a market that was already feeling the impact of Sudan’s civil war.

Said Ali, a broker at Mombasa-based tea trading firm Sharan Teas, thinks that any potential economic impact on the sector would be offset in the long run by growth in new export markets. As of February 2024, Kenya shipped tea to 58 export destinations, compared to 48 a year earlier. “It’s a concern, but we’ve been seeing strong growth in markets like Chad and South Sudan,” he said. “Even in traditional markets like the UK and India, demand for Kenyan tea has remained strong.”

By April Lanux

Sun-scorched lands, lonely polar bears, wind turbines spinning above lush meadows and a voice that warns “the countdown has begun”.

This footage is not part of the latest Extinction Rebellion campaign but instead comes from videos produced by French bank Crédit Agricole. In its PR campaign aimed at presenting a greener image, Europe's third-largest banking group promises to “put pressure” on its clients to “preserve the future of the planet”. But in reality, the bank with over €2,400 billion in assets is still a long way from its goal. It is clearly aware of this, since it is buying up shares and bonds in oil and gas companies in spades; multinationals for whom the future of the planet does not seem to be a priority.

These financial operations, which are not mentioned in Crédit Agricole's promotional videos, transit through a little-known but highly strategic entity for the group: its investment subsidiary Amundi, whose mission is to grow the savings of individuals and capital entrusted by public or private companies. By carrying out a detailed analysis of the investments made by the French banking group, the online investigative media Disclose, in partnership with FRANCE 24 and RFI, discovered that in August 2024, Amundi held €238 million worth of shares and bonds in the Spanish company Repsol. This investment earns Crédit Agricole €10.8 million a year. Last September, another French bank, BPCE, took part in raising almost a billion dollars on behalf of Repsol. The Spanish multinational oil and gas company has a strong presence in Latin America, including in Peru. Since 2006, it has been exploiting a huge gas field in the southeast of the country – right in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

The Disclose team travelled to Peru to find out what the French group's investments in the Spanish firm entail. On the banks of the Urubamba River, in an area where more than 5,000 hectares of trees have disappeared – according to a census by the NGO Global Forest Watch – Repsol's footprint is everywhere. Crédit Agricole profits handsomely from this presence, which involves gas drilling, an extremely polluting activity.

You have to strain your ears to catch the hum. A low frequency, like the fluttering wings of a giant dragonfly, contrasts with the birdsong and regular machete strokes of Walter Dalguerri, who has been guiding us through the Peruvian jungle along the Urubamba River for two hours now. On this Friday, October 4, as we approach the Mipaya gas site in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, the hum becomes more and more perceptible. “It's the sound of the flare used to burn off the gas,” explains Dalguerri, as we make our way through one of the many streams we have to cross to reach the site from our starting point, the village of Kirigueti. Dalguerri, with his athletic build and sunburnt face, knows what he's talking about: he's the village chief of Kirigueti, which is located opposite Mipaya.

This is one of the 30 or so drilling sites associated with the Camisea mega gas field. Covering 1,700 km² of jungle in the Lower Urubamba region, it’s made up of three concessions held by several oil and gas industry heavyweights: Argentina's Pluspetrol, American firm Hunt Oil, China's CNPC and Repsol, which holds 10 percent of Mipaya and a controlling stake in other drilling operations in the sector.

Since becoming chief of the neighbouring village, Dalguerri has been documenting the pollution caused by activity around the Mipaya gas well. From abandoned plastic sheeting to damaged drainage pipes, he photographs it all. With one exception: the wisps of toxic gas, invisible to the naked eye, that escape from the chimney used to burn "superfluous" gas in the open air. According to Dalguerri, the Mipaya chimney is frequently active. This could have serious consequences not only for local flora and fauna, but also for the health of the several thousand people living nearby. “Flaring produces all kinds of air pollutants, and these have health effects such as heart attacks, respiratory problems, asthma and hospital admissions,” says Jonathan Buonocore, a public health researcher at Boston University and expert on the issue.

In Peru, companies like Repsol that use flaring have to get the green light from the ministry of energy and mines. The problem is that those in charge don't seem to have much regard for the protection of nature and local residents. According to our calculations, based on an analysis of official documents, since 2022 the authorities have approved the emission of over 72,000 tonnes of CO2 from the three concessions linked to the Camisea gas field. And that's just the carbon dioxide emitted by flaring. These authorisations do not take into account methane leaks throughout the production chain, nor the transportation of the gas. This lenient approach to the gas industry can be explained by the fact that the Camisea fields supply 40 percent of the country's electricity, and have earned the state €15 billion in various taxes over the past 20 years. And the government has no intention of stopping there: huge steel pipelines are soon to be built to carry the gas produced by Repsol and its partners to other regions in southern Peru.

When contacted by Disclose, FRANCE 24 and RFI, Repsol did not respond to our requests for an interview. The Argentine company Pluspetrol, which owns the majority of the Mipaya well, was a little more forthcoming. In writing, it assured us that flaring “cannot be considered a health hazard”. All the more so, the company insisted, as the process is “carried out in remote areas, under supervision and in compliance with technical and environmental requirements”.

Disclose and its partners also sent a series of questions to Crédit Agricole to find out why the group maintains its ties with Repsol, especially since the Spanish multinational has been extracting gas in the Peruvian Amazon since 2006. This was its answer: “At the end of 2023, Crédit Agricole decided to accelerate its transition plan (...) Crédit Agricole is therefore studying all renewable energy projects, including those from players in the oil and gas sector.” There is no mention, however, of the €238 million invested in Repsol via its subsidiary Amundi. Yet it is these investments that enable the French bank to profit from the stranglehold of fossil fuels in the Peruvian Amazon.

To measure this influence, we head for Nuevo Mundo, a village located half an hour by boat from the Mipaya gas site. It is home to around 1,000 people, most of them members of the Matsigenka community, an Indigenous Peruvian Amazonian group whose main livelihoods are fishing, hunting and farming. In the dirt roads of this village, accessible only by river or helicopter, people swear by Repsol's gas. The multinational even chose this area on the banks of the Urubamba to set up its regional logistics base, with an airfield, gas compression factory, dormitories and football pitch reserved for employees.

The omnipresence of Repsol explains why residents have access to electricity, the phone network and intermittent wifi, supplied by Elon Musk's Starlink satellites. It's also why Nuevo Mundo boasts a well-stocked grocery store, where fluorescent yellow bottles of Inka Cola sit alongside all kinds of crisps and freeze-dried soups, as well as modern housing – all concrete and glass. One of these houses stands out for its shiny wooden facade. This is the office of Emmac, a private organisation dedicated to preserving the environment. The room where regional manager Guimez Rios greets us features a glass desk and a huge poster extolling the work of his employees.

Rios delicately takes a water quality-measuring instrument out of a cardboard box and places it on the desk, with the care that one might handle a relic. “"The [colleagues] still need to be trained to use it," he concedes, unwittingly summing up the whole paradox of the situation. His team of 10 inspectors is supposed to monitor the environmental impact of Repsol's gas installations. But, in reality, it doesn't have enough resources. And the independence of Rios's organisation is in question: Emmac is fully funded by Repsol, as is the expensive measuring equipment on the desk. It would be good, however, to be able to monitor the Spanish company's activities. Here, like everywhere else in the region, Repsol's gas burns in the open air, non-stop.

"The flare is lit continuously. The company says it's necessary,” asserts Rios, one of the few people allowed to enter the multinational's base. A potentially dangerous situation that nobody seems to care about; not even Rios. “The company promises that the gas doesn't pollute,” continues the man on whom Repsol's environmental and health controls depend. As for Nuevo Mundo's doctor, although he has noted a significant number of cases of pneumonia among children, he attributes this to “temperature variations”.

It's hard to get a critical voice heard in a region so heavily subsidised by gas companies. In the Megantoni district alone, which encompasses Nuevo Mundo and some 30 municipalities, fossil fuel companies paid over €98 million in taxes in 2023, according to data from the Peruvian economy ministry. As for the wages on offer, they are highly attractive. In 2023, the average Repsol worker earned €1,843 a month, or seven times the Peruvian minimum wage. It's a salary the multinational can easily afford to pay: Peruvian gas accounts for 25 percent of its global reserves. As for its activities in Peru, they account for 12 percent of its oil and gas turnover, bringing in more than €600 million in 2023.

Another example of the omerta surrounding the Camisea gas field is the pollution of Peru’s Huitiricaya River. On February 12, 2019, a complaint against the pollution of the river was filed with OEFA, the Peruvian environmental regulator. Disclose obtained a copy of the complaint, which was filed by a former Repsol executive who was in the region between 2015 and 2018. But when contacted, he refused to comment on the subject. The complaint denounces “alleged pollution resulting from the discharge of highly polluting fluids into rivers and streams in the vicinity of the Sagari gas platform”, the name of a group of wells operated by Repsol. Repsol did not reply to us on this matter either. The pollution, the complaint alleges, has been going on since “around 2017” and could be caused by the discharge of production waters into the Huitiricaya River, on the banks of which the company has drilled three wells. The contamination could be mercury, hydrocarbons or heavy metals, according to a study carried out in 2014 by a company commissioned by Repsol, which lists the products discharged into the water.

To confirm this, Disclose asked the authorities in charge of extractive industries and the environment for permission to consult the results of the self-checks Repsol must carry out every three months at the point of discharge into the waterway – to no avail. Rios, the environmental controller we met in Nuevo Mundo, doesn't know any more. “We haven't received any more data from Repsol for the past two or three years,” he told us. Disclose also tried to reach the village of Porotobango, where the allegedly polluted site is located, to interview local residents. However, the chief of this village of 160 people objected to the idea as the subject was too sensitive.

We did, however, manage to speak to a resident of Porotobango, who wishes to remain anonymous. On the phone, he reported that the children of the village are told not to bathe in the river. According to him, cases of skin irritation still occur regularly. This appears to be confirmed by two photos taken in 2023, which show raw wounds on the faces and legs of children who allegedly came into contact with water from the Huitiricaya River. According to three doctors to whom we showed these photos, one of these wounds could be the result of a chemical burn. Meanwhile, the nurse at the Nueva Vida health station, who is responsible for treating the inhabitants of Porotobango, admits she has already had to deal with this type of skin problem. But again, she does not wish to go into details.

Once extracted from the depths of the Amazon jungle, the gas produced by Repsol continues its journey to southern Peru. Here, too, serious pollution can occur, since the gas is transported by pipeline. This happened in February 2018, when a pipeline running under the Urubamba River ruptured following a landslide. Large quantities of "natural gas liquid vapours" spilled into the river, a few kilometres south of Nuevo Mundo. The water began to release smoke over several hundred metres, bringing dead fish to the surface, burning the surrounding vegetation and poisoning passengers on nearby boats. This is what happened to 12 people, including Yonar Palomino Silvao, who spoke to FRANCE 24. "We thought we were all going to die, we were suffocating so badly we couldn't row," he recalled. "The air was so full of gas that two or three of us nearly fainted." Another survivor recalls the cries and prayers of passengers who, like him, were suffering from nausea and headaches.

The rest of the time, a significant proportion of the gas extracted from the Camisea fields ends up at the LNG terminal in the port of Pampa Melchorita, on Peru's Pacific coast. From there, it travels to the four corners of the world in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This includes France: between April and October 2024, three tankers loaded with Peruvian gas docked in France. They delivered 220,000 tonnes of LNG for a well-known client: TotalEnergies. This French fossil fuel multinational also benefits from the support of the Crédit Agricole group. In April 2024, the latter's investment subsidiary Amundi bought bonds from TotalEnergies as part of a financing campaign. The deal raised more than €4 billion.