Author: Abeer Abazeed
Affiliation: Research Associate, Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC), University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Date: 09 July 2026
A common African fact is that the Nile River is the longest in the world; thus, layers of historical, social, and economic interactions have unfolded not just among its riparian states but also among its peoples. This longest river inspired British novelist Agatha Christie to make it the focus of one of her renowned crime fiction novels, ‘Death on the Nile’. The novel tells the story of a crime committed aboard a steamer by European tourists visiting Egypt. Unlike this European fiction, the ‘death on the Nile’ is currently caused by irrational development plans by national riparian governments.
The Nile River Basin is hydrologically divided into two major tributaries: the Blue Nile, which originates in the Ethiopian highlands, and the White Nile, which originates in Lake Victoria and its connected small tributaries. In Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, which means ‘hose’ in English, two major tributaries confluence to shape the main river. From ecological and economic perspectives, shared water resources should be managed collectively if riparian communities and states want to sustain them. But in reality, each riparian country utilises the river as part of its own national development. Therefore, we often hear in the news about rising disputes about sharing the Nile waters. Current news focuses on the recent dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the flow of the Blue Nile, following Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). This grand dam threatens the sustainability of water flow to Egypt, which lacks alternative perennial water sources, adding a layer of injustice to the Nile.
The White Nile also faces unjust practices, namely, the extraction of oil from Lake Elbert in Uganda and its transport across Lake Victoria for export. This transnational project is known as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The term ‘East Africa’ suggests that it is an important region of cooperation; yet its environmental and social consequences are severe.
The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, has sought to pursue oil exploration since the 1990s to transform the country into an oil producer and exporter. He secured an exploration deal with foreign companies in 1997 and started digging the first exploratory oil well in 2002. Then, in 2016, Uganda’s president reached an agreement with Tanzania’s late president, John Magufuli, to build an oil pipeline through Tanzania’s port of Tanga. The Tanzanian government believes that participating in the oil industry helps to boost its global position by exporting oil overseas. In 2021, an agreement was reached to build the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. TotalEnergies of France owns the largest stake (62%). In comparison, Uganda (through the Uganda National Oil Company) and Tanzania (through the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation) each hold 15%, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Limited owns 8% of the pipeline. The oil extraction and transportation include other complementary projects that affect riparian peoples and biodiversity.
The interaction between foreign oil companies and governments, on the one hand, and communities, on the other, reveals imbalanced forces that cause injustice. According to reports produced in 2022 by Oxfam International and Les Amis de la Terre France, the EACOP has detrimental impacts on over 300 villages, displaced over 100,000 people, and destroyed over 2,000 sacred shrines, as well as nature reserves such as Murchison Falls, Karuma, and Kabalega, which include rare species. Furthermore, the entire project’s operations are estimated to emit 379 million tonnes of CO2 over 25 years. All of these destructions have already occurred, though the EACOP’s website shows that the environmental and social impact assessments were conducted in Tanzania in 2019 and in Uganda in 2020, before the project gained licenses to commence work in 2023.
Fighting death on the White Nile has continued at different levels and with many strategies. Legal cases against Total are currently underway at the Paris civil court, with another appeal against the project’s violations at the East African Court of Justice. On the other hand, global and regional campaigns like #STOPEACOP and students against EACOP raise awareness and mobilise people against this damaging project.
EACOP is not only a setback in the global struggle against fossil fuels, but it also exacerbates injustice for Nilotic peoples.