00:00A group of Ugandan farmers have filed a lawsuit in the UK High Court against the East African
00:06Nation's $5.6 billion crude pipeline. The petition says the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline
00:13or ECOP will impact water sources, wildlife and biodiversity. Our Chief Africa Correspondent
00:21Jennifer Zapisadja is on top of that story for us in Johannesburg. Jen, what are the
00:27farmers arguing and what does this mean for Uganda's oil exports? Well, Abir, as you were just pointing out there,
00:36the farmers say that this 900 mile pipeline is likely to harm the environment, their livelihoods, worsen
00:42biodiversity, water resources and also climate change more broadly. The significance of this being filed in the UK
00:49is that ECOP, as you were just mentioning there, is a company that is registered in the UK. It is
00:55backed and owned
00:57by Total Energies and also China's Sea Nook. And so really the question is, where does this project go
01:04from here? Uganda has been anticipating this $5.6 billion pipeline for quite some time. Crude production,
01:11President Museveni has talked quite a bit about how crude production could help to boost the economy.
01:17City analysts even estimate that it could grow the economy by 1 to 1.5 percent. And so now that
01:25we are
01:26seeing this court filing go in, how much could this delay any start of the start of the pipeline project,
01:35which was expected to be in September or October of this year? So the group is seeking to file an
01:41injunction
01:42to stop oil transportation compensation and other legal relief. So, you know, we're really waiting to see
01:49where this goes from here. We should note, though, that this isn't the first time that we've seen an argument
01:55against this
01:56pipeline. We've seen a number of European lawmakers and also rights groups protest against this. And so really, we'll see
02:04what the
02:04high court says, because especially and notably, the UK, this company is registered in the UK. So this carries a
02:10bit more weight.
02:11So,
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