Nigerian Farmers Want Shell to Compensate for Land Damages
Four Nigerian farmers suing Shell for land damages in the Niger Delta region now want the Anglo-Dutch oil giant to pay compensations.
The case initially filed in 2008 relates to the damages caused by oil leaks in 2005 in the Niger Delta.
The four farmers backed by the Dutch lobby group Friends of the Earth have sued Shell in a civil case at The Hague miles away from Nigeria, for violating the law by not repairing leaks that have caused damages to farmers in three states of Ogoniland, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.
The case relates to an earlier suit filed in 2008 over the damages caused in 2005 demanding the Royal Dutch Shell clean up the regions, repair and maintain defective pipes and pay out compensation.
Channa Samkalden, lawyer for the Nigerians, told the court that Shell violated its legal obligations for failing to maintain the pipeline, clean up the spills and prevent further pollution.
Shell knew for a long time that the pipeline was damaged but didn't do anything. They could have stopped the leaks," said Ms Samkalden during the hearing on Thursday.
Lawyers representing Shell told the court that it could not be held liable because most spills were caused by criminal damage of the pipeline widespread in the area, saying it was hard to carry out repairs because of insecurity in the Niger Delta.
Friday Alfred Akpan told the AFP news agency before the court hearing that the results of the oil leakages had made it difficult for him to live and put his children through school.
"I'm here because of the oil leakage that happened in my community in the Shell facilities and destroyed my 47 fish ponds" he said.
Shell's Vice President Environment said in court that the claims are unsubstantiated saying that the spills that happened between 2004 and 2007 were due to cases of “illegal theft and sabotage.”
"We say there was a spill, it wasn't our fault, we cleaned up nevertheless and that's what happened," Castelein said.
Judges are now considering the evidence as ruling is expected within the next six weeks or three months. If successful, the case could pave way for thousands of other compensation claims in the landmark case, first time a Dutch multinational has been sued in a civil case at home in connection with damages caused abroad.
Shell, with a local operative in Nigeria, is the biggest oil producer in the country, where it has been drilling for over 50 years.
Friends of the Earth say the scale of Pollution in the Niger Delta was twice that of the Gulf of Mexico leak in 2010 considered the biggest ever marine spill when BP’s Deepwater Horizon Rig exploded, dumping five million barrel of oil into sea.
A report by the UN environment agency, UNEP released last year said that over half a century’s oil operations in the Niger Delta’s Ogoniland had caused deeper damages to the region which may require world’s biggest ever clean-up that could take up to 30 years.
Separatist militant groups in the oil-rich region have waged a violent campaign demanding more local distribution of the oil revenue to the more than 31 million inhabitants who mainly live in rural areas.
London, UK
Report: Africa Facing Massive Food Shortages
A new study has revealed several countries in Africa are at risk of food shortage blamed on civil unrests and resulting displacements in the continent, compounded by drought.
The Food Security Index report released on Wednesday by the British consultancy, Maplecroft, show that 75% of countries in Africa and several Arab countries faced impending food insecurity. In a survey conducted in 197 countries worldwide, up to 39 of the 59 world’s most at risk were African states.
"Although a food crisis has not emerged yet, there is potential for food-related upheaval across the most vulnerable regions, including sub-Saharan African and Arab states,” Helen Hodge, head of maps and indices at Maplecroft, said.
Maplecroft says the food forecast for 2013 is worrying, due to low crop yields that had pushed the global food prices by six percent in July 2012, raising concerns of a repeated food crisis in 2007/8.
Nine of the 11 countries placed in the “extreme risk” category were in Africa. They include Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), which are ranked jointly first, Burundi (4th), Chad (5th), Ethiopia (6th), Eritrea (7th), South Sudan (9th), the Comoros (10th) and Sierra Leone (11th).
Haiti, which is placed third and Afghanistan ranking eighth, are the other two countries in the extreme risk category.
The sources of food insecurity have been blamed on ongoing conflict and instability in the Sahel DR Congo and eastern Africa, also made worse by the worst drought in the US in 50 years and declining production in former Soviet countries.
The Sahel which is a vast desert area stretches across nine of West Africa states, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.
The report known as the Food Security Risk Index is intended for governments, NGOs and businesses to identify countries that could be susceptible to hunger or unrest because of food shortages or price hikes.
Malawi has been epitomised as continent’s greatest success story from reeling from a worst ever famine in 2002 that forced huge government spending in millions of dollars to import food. Now it boasts of sound exports with a 46 percent annual average increase in production after a great turnabout seen by the government and foreign investment irrigation programme as well as experiences of recent high rain fall in the region.
Conflict in northern Mali has displaced some 400,000 people, with over a half fleeing into neighbouring states which are also being faced by severe food crisis. According to the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, more than 18 million people in the region risk starving, with 1.1 million children facing acute malnutrition.
Over 226,000 people have been displaced, where 60,000 have fled into neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, since fighting eastern D R Congo between government forces and rebels began in April.