UN Says Shell Failed to Clean Up Niger Delta Oil Spills

Shell's systemic failure to address oil spills for many years is addressed in the report © Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR

The Niger Delta has been suffering for decades from the devastating impact of oil pollution – damaging people’s health, livelihoods and access to food and water.

Today, an independent United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report lays bare how oil pollution in the Niger Delta has destroyed the environment and the lives of people living in poverty. It’s time for the oil industry and the Nigerian government to Wake Up and Clean Up!

In 2008, two major oil spills occurred at Bodo Creek in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta. The oil poured into the swamp and creek for weeks. Almost three years on, the pollution has not been cleaned up.

Amnesty International visited Bodo in May 2011.  The video below shows the ongoing damage and the human impact – pastor Christian Lekoya Kpandei’s livelihood and source of food was destroyed. What would you want to happen if you were in his position?

The good news is that yesterday Shell accepted liability for the two oil spills at Bodo – but it could take years for the pollution to be cleaned up. How should the Nigerian government and the oil industry prevent this happening again in the future?

Sign our petition telling Nigeria’s government to hold oil companies to account. The oil companies must clean up their act!

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8 thoughts on “UN Says Shell Failed to Clean Up Niger Delta Oil Spills

  1. I continue to be sickened by the greed of the investors in and governors of petroleum companies. I think that politicians that support big oil are criminals and should be removed from office. I am in despair over the continued purchasing of big cars and how people burn toxins rather than walk a few blocks. I am close to hating businesses and individuals who use outdoor air conditioners in the summer and out door gas heaters in fall and spring just to get more people packed into the bar or restaurant. I have little compassion left for people who keep their head in the sand and say that they deserve the things that are destroying our planet. People survived without AC for thousands of years. How many people leave appliances turned on to safe them the effort of walking across the floor and turning them off or leave their vehicles idling while waiting to avoid the effort of turning the engine on and off. If this is what Democracy is then I scorn it. It was never meant to make some people enormously wealthy because it is a free country. It is not free. It is on the backs of people who work for a living at home and in places like Niger and Peru.

  2. I continue to be sickened by the greed of the investors in and governors of petroleum companies. I think that politicians that support big oil are criminals and should be removed from office. I am in despair over the continued purchasing of big cars and how people burn toxins rather than walk a few blocks. I am close to hating businesses and individuals who use outdoor air conditioners in the summer and out door gas heaters in fall and spring just to get more people packed into the bar or restaurant. I have little compassion left for people who keep their head in the sand and say that they deserve the things that are destroying our planet. People survived without AC for thousands of years. How many people leave appliances turned on to safe them the effort of walking across the floor and turning them off or leave their vehicles idling while waiting to avoid the effort of turning the engine on and off. If this is what Democracy is then I scorn it. It was never meant to make some people enormously wealthy because it is a free country. It is not free. It is on the backs of people who work for a living at home and in places like Niger and Peru.

  3. What can we do? We can pray for the Judgment of God against these greedy politicians and oil company. Perhaps God is using the greedy politicians and oil companies to punish Nigerians because they go after strange "gods", they do not observe the commandments, judgments and statutes and worse they fail to love each other. Shame on both parties.!

  4. What can we do? We can pray for the Judgment of God against these greedy politicians and oil company. Perhaps God is using the greedy politicians and oil companies to punish Nigerians because they go after strange “gods”, they do not observe the commandments, judgments and statutes and worse they fail to love each other. Shame on both parties.!

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