This blog first appeared on the Greenpeace UK blog on 7 October 2011. This time last year I was standing in a vast pool of oily water. It used to be a fish pond for local villagers, but now everywhere was coated with oil and the stench of petroleum was overpowering. A light rain was falling.…
The House of Representatives, part of Nigeria's legislative body has ordered an official investigation into the allegations that Shell fuelled violence in the Niger Delta by paying armed militant gangs. As John Ameh reports from Punch, in Abuja: The House of Representatives on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the allegation that Shell Petroleum Development Company funded…
Al Jazeera reports that since Shell admitted liability for 2 major oil spills in Bodo after a lawsuit was filed against the oil giant in the High Court in London, the company has done nothing to clean up the extensive damage in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. While Shell cites ‘security issues’ as…
“To an oil company, it’s liquid gold.” That’s how filmmaker Sandi Cioffi describes Nigerian oil, known as ‘sweet crude’ because it is low in sulphur and therefore cheaper and easier to refine. The trailer below is for Sweet Crude, the film. An amazing and insightful documentary by Sandi Cioffi, it looks at the appalling legacy of…
In a new blog post on New Internationalist, Niger Delta activist Sokari Ekine provides a critical overview of Shell’s operations in Nigeria, including her first hand experiences in Rumuekpe, the town where Shell funded killings and militant clashes: This week a report by Platform London, ‘Counting the Cost’, found that between 2000 and 2010, Shell fuelled…
BBC Business Daily conducted an in-depth interview with researcher Ben Amunwa about Platform’s new report, titled Counting the Cost, on Shell’s human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. Shell were invited to the interview but refused to attend. The BBC World Service broadcast the interview to hundred millions of listeners worldwide this morning. You can…
Counting the Cost implicates Shell in cases of serious violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region from 2000 to 2010. The report uncovers how Shell’s routine payments to armed militants exacerbated conflicts, in one case leading to the destruction of Rumuekpe town where it is estimated that at least 60 people were killed. The report describes…
Shell fuelled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants, according to a new report published by Platform and a coalition of NGOs and featured today in The Guardian. [1] Counting the Cost implicates Shell in cases of serious violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region from 2000 to 2010.[2] The report uncovers how Shell’s…