Sabotage, Lawsuits, and Outrage
Due to a dissatisfaction with the way of life along the Niger Delta, groups of men began to form in shared outrage in their inability to find jobs and support their families. 2006 marked the formation of the militant group known as Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND. MEND had three major goals to achieve. For one, the group wanted the release of Asari [who is Asari? and why is this important for our project?] from prison. The group also demanded that "the people" would get 50 percent of oil revenue from the Delta [as dictated by 1960 constitution according to Rob Nixon]. Finally, the group sought the withdrawl of government troops. In January of that year, the group kidnapped four foreign Shell oil workers. This group seemed to have organization that previous groups lacked. Two Shell oilfields estimated a loss of 477,000 barrels of oil per day due to attacks by this MEND. The group only escalated from there. By 2007 the group had held over 50 oil workers for ransom. It wasn't until 2009 when the government began an amnesty program that the group declared a ceasefire.
(http://www.cfr.org/nigeria/mend-niger-deltas-umbrella-militant-group/p12920)
(http://www.britannica.com/place/Nigeria/Military-regimes-1983-99#ref953495)
In 2008, four Nigerian citizens along with an organization called Friends of the Earth filed a civil suit in the Netherlands against Shell Oil. While Shell Oil argued that they had cleaned up the region to the satisfaction of authorities of Niger [Nigeria?], the Friends of the Earth were adamant that the effects on the vegetation was not unsubstantial. In 2013 it was ruled that Shell would have to take some responsibility for the the Niger Delta pollution, regardless of sabotage that they should have taken preventative measures to stop. The desired outcome was for Shell to repair the damages in the community by cleaning up oil spillage, maintaining pipelines better to prevent future occurrences of spillage, and to pay compensation to villagers who had lost their livelihood. [is this section about Ogoniland or elsewhere in the Delta? You could be more specific because, according to Nixon, "Shell was driven out of Ogoniland in 1993" although "it simply moved on to other parts of Nigeria's once lush delta of death" (107).]
In 2011, the Nigerian Government, along with the oil company Shell, were criticized in a report after a 2 year study by the U.N. Environmental Program that was outraged at the 50 years of pollution in Ogoniland. The study focused on 69 sites in Ogoniland and revealed several concerns,both for the health of the environment and for the people that lived there. An estimated $1 billion and 30 years are necessary to clean up the land. By the following year, over 10,000 people from Bodo, Ogoniland filed a suit against Shell. The group sought millions of dollars to repay the people for two major spills in 2008.
(http://www.reuters.com/article/shell-nigeria-lawsuit-history-idUSL5N0AZC5T20130130)
(http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/world/europe/netherlands-nigeria-shell-oil/)
While oil pollution in the Niger River Delta is not news, it hasn't been eased yet. It continues to be an important issue. In 2015, Shell had to pay over $75 million to an citizens of Nigeria that were suffering from oil pollution after oil spills in 2008 and 2009. In 2016 a UK High Court judge has now moved to proceed on two new cases against Shell Nigeria on behalf of the Ogale Community in Ogoniland and the Bille Kingdom. The people of the Niger River Delta still continue to suffer the pollution and loss of livlihoods. It seems unlikely that the situation will be completely resolved anytime soon.
(http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2987329/53000_nigerian_oil_spill_victims_press_new_shell_lawsuits.html)
