Home > Blog > Priscila Néri's blog

Niger Delta: The Curse of the Black Gold

By: Priscila Néri, Posted: May 29 09

Regions: Nigeria

Issues: Corporations and human rights, Torture, Violence

Tags: exploitation, Ken Saro-Wiwa, MEND, mosop, natural resources, niger delta, oil, Poverty, shell

Multinational oil companies have been extracting oil from the Niger Delta for the past 50 years.  With the complicity of successive corrupt governments, they've collected enormous profits while local communities in the Delta have remained in extreme poverty. 

Today's feature - excerpts of Curse of the Black Gold- is a collaboration between Talking Eyes Media and MediaStorm that looks into some of the consequences of decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta.

 

 

The topic is more timely than ever - in the last couple of days, a reported 30,000 civilians have been displaced in the Niger Delta after the Nigerian military bombed the region in an attempt to "target militants" that had been blocking exports of oil.  

In addition, this month will likely mark the opening of a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit as Royal Dutch Shell stands trial in New York for alleged complicity in a series of human rights violations in the Niger Delta, including execution and torture.  We'll be following that case closely so stay tuned all this week for new videos and upcoming coverage of Shell On Trial: Wiwa v Shell.


Priscila Néri's blog | | 1006 reads | Subscribe

Comments

Add Comment

Shell finally goes to trial?

By StephenC1216 on Jun 2 09

wow. 14 years to get Royal Dutch Shell into a court room. as a reminder, Shell is accused of colluding with the Nigerian government to suppress resistance against the oil companies operating in the Delta. somehow, though, i doubt that Shell will receive much more than a rap on the knuckles.


We hope so!

By Caitlin Clay on Jun 3 09

Hey Stephen,

Well, it looks like Shell is finally about to get its day in court.  The court date has been postponed several times, but we're thinking it's due to settlement talks, so we're hopeful of a positive outcome.  We'll be following all new developments on our page: Shell on Trial.