FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Shell will appear in the High Court in London today to be held accountable for its oil spills in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Over 11,000 Nigerians from Bodo town in the Ogoni region of the Delta are suing Shell over the environmental damage caused by two devastating oil spills in…
Yesterday the 19th annual church service called by Stephen Lawrence’s family to honour and remember his life and legacy took place at Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1. It was a moment to reflect, grieve, and mark all that has happened – the unspeakable and the extraordinary – since his murder in 1993. The occasion made…
Tomorrow the Supreme Court of the United States hears Kiobel v Shell, a case that alleges Shell aided and abetted human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Nigerian military against the Ogoni people from 1992 onwards. The case has significance for the global movement for corporate accountability. The outcome in Kiobel will…
Three of the world’s biggest private oil companies face landmark legal actions this February. Here is a brief run down of the main cases, what they are about and why they matter. 1. US v BP At the centre of the legal fallout from BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010 is a complex civil…
On Monday 16 January at 4.30 to 5am, Chevron's KS Endeavour drilling rig burst into flames, approximately 6 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Two workers are reported missing. The gas rig is still said to be burning for the second day running and is reported to have partially collapsed into the ocean. The cause is…
Nigeria’s oil spill agency, NOSDRA, says that Shell’s Bonga oil spill “is likely the worst [offshore spill] in a decade.” Peter Idabor of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency told The Associated Press on Thursday that oil from the spill in Shell’s Bonga field has spread to roughly 100 nautical miles. Idabor said…
Last night Shell came face to face with its grim record on human rights in Nigeria at a corporate event for London’s bright young entrepreneurs. Protesters in haunting costumes from London Rising Tide stormed the Shell Live Wire event, unfurling a large banner and distributing leaflets to event attendees. Watch the video by you and…
by Ben Amunwa This article first appeared in Foto8 magazine, The Legacy of Oil edition, 14 October 2010. Outside the plane window at the Niger Delta, the oil region of Nigeria, I can see a solid bed of rainforest with wide ribbons of water the colour of coffee dregs coiling through it. I try to…
Network Africa, the BBC World Service’s flagship programme broadcasting across the continent, interviewed Platform’s Ben Amunwa about the new report which implicates Shell in a decade of new human rights abuses in Nigeria. Shell declined to attend the interview. For more Platform podcasts, visit our page for the remember saro-wiwa project on podomatic.
US radio station FSRN interviews Platform’s Ben Amunwa on the new report, Counting the Cost, which implicates Shell in new human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. The interview includes reference to the different ways that Shell’s ‘community development’ projects have undermined stability, and the company’s appalling record of environmental destruction and oil spills. The…