The Niger Delta's long battle with Shell is at a possible turning point

The Supreme Court of London has decided to give voice to continue human rights violations perpetrated on the inhabitants of the Niger River coast by the local supply chain of the multinational oil company Shell.The decision was taken following complaints from over 13,000 farmers and fishermen in the communities of Ogale and Billeper regarding the damage caused by decades of continuous oil extraction in the Nigerian republic.The ruling of the English Court therefore provides for the start of a trial in which, however, the opposing party has already declared that "Shell has no intention of leaving Nigeria", despite the fact that the institutions have ascertained the company's responsibility for the pollution of the territory where it operates.The environmental and human health damage caused by the oil spill have tragically outlined a contamination with roots too deep to be ignored any longer.

For over 60 years the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) extracts oil indiscriminately in the country, destroying areas necessary for the survival of the population, mainly made up of farmers and fishermen.Following the possibility granted from the High Court of London to the Nigerian inhabitants to be able to bring a lawsuit against the fossil fuel company for chronic pollution of water sources produced by the oil business in Nigeria, the African branch of the multinational he declared to have already compensated the affected parties.This statement refers to the ruling of the Court of Appeal of the International Court of Justice, which in 2021 had established a compensation of 16 million dollars for the environmental damage caused by Shell's activities to the communities of Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo.But the devastating impact of this pollution has caused "a human tragedy of extraordinary proportions" which it doesn't just affect communities that have already been compensated, as stated by the lawyers of the thousands of fishermen and farmers who are currently awaiting trial.

Already in 2009, Amnesty International, in its report on the Niger Delta, denounced how "decades of pollution and damage to the environment, caused by the oil industry, have led to the violation of the right to a decent standard of living, including water and food, right to work and health".Due to this emergency state of pollution, in 2019 the Oils & Environmental Commission of Bayelsa was appointed directly by the state government of the Niger Delta, which discovered and denounced, in the report An Environmental Genocide, the presence in human tissues of “levels of heavy metals associated with oil production far exceeding safe levels.”In the same year, the total revenues deriving from the extraction of oil and gas in the country brought a turnover of over 4.5 billion dollars to the coffers of the English multinational.

Yet Nigeria, being the leading oil producer on the African continent, it should be able to benefit from the richness of its territory, where drilling began in 1956.Instead, since the 1970s the local population has had to make way for Shell settlements and the consequent contamination coming from mining activity, having to give up the traditional agricultural production of cocoa, peanuts, rubber and cotton.The protests of Nigerians were never long in coming:already in 1990 discontent had pushed citizens to protest, but it was the Mobile Police Force (MPF) who intervened, which did not hesitate to massacre more than 80 civilians at Shell's request, who subsequently denied having requested the intervention of the armed forces.After almost thirty years, the violence perpetrated by the economic interests of a few is still affecting the population indiscriminately.

«The situation in the Niger Delta is a typical example of the practices of a government that does not assume its responsibilities towards the population and multinational companies that absolutely do not realize the human rights consequences of their activity" explains the expert in Economics and Human Rights of the Swiss section of Amnesty International in the aforementioned 2019 report.Situations in the face of which the population has chosen not to remain silent.

[by Flavia Todisco]