Nairobi, Nov. 27 -- Insurance firm Britam has backed out of a deal to underwrite the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) after the firm's own internal environmental and social risk assessment revealed that its participation in the $5 billion project violated its backers' policies and performance standards.

Details of the Britam withdrawal emerged in a response filed on November 8 to a complaint raised last year with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman - an independent agency of the World Bank - which revealed that Britam turned away from the Eacop after conducting a review of the environmental and social risks.

"There are indications of a plausible link to harm or risk of harm to the complainant related to the sub-project," reads the r...