News

Oil Spill: 10,000 lack drinking water in Edo State

Thursday, 22 July 2010 00:00 |

(All Voices) OVER 10,000 citizens, including women and children, in the Edo State axis of the Niger Delta, have been cut-off from the source of their drinking water following an oil spill which occurred at a facility belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The development is currently causing serious concern in the environmental rights community in the volatile oil region.

Already, the country's foremost environmental rights advocacy platform, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) is pressing the Federal Government to compel the NNPC to clean up the Akhiaba River in Edo State, polluted by the corporation’s facility and compensate two communities impacted by the spill.

Lead Poison: ERA Blames Zamfara Government

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 00:00 |

(Independent Newspapers)Failure of Zamfara State government to enforce strict environmental regulation on solid mineral extraction and its disappointing performance in providing basic social amenities and employment to local communities are directly responsible for recent deaths resulting from mining sites and several communities, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has stated.

Shell And The N15bn Oil Spill Judgement Debt

Monday, 19 July 2010 00:00 |

Given the age-long travails and aspirations of the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta, we see the recent judgment of the Federal High Court, Asaba, on an oil spill dispute, ordering the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to pay N15.4 billion damages to the Ejama-Ebubu community in Rivers State, as a most salutary development. For over 40 years, the Ejama-Ebubu community in Tai Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State had endured the agonies of oil spills without any compensation from Shell, before it went to court nine years ago to demand redress. The oil giant has indicated its decision to appeal against the judgement.

Nnimmo Bassey: Friend of the Earth, Peaceful Revolutionary

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 18:48 |

One of Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment 2009, Nnimmo Bassey is a modern day revolutionary, who speaks of the resistance and the defence of human rights in the same breath. The intersection between human rights and environmental rights is fundamental for him and, in this exclusive interview, the Friends of the Earth chair talks about the situation in the Niger Delta.

Go to the full interview

Copenhagen not a fair deal, Gas flaring must end

Monday, 08 March 2010 15:40 |

Communiqué Issued at the end of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Retreat of Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) at its Annual General Meeting and Retreat held in Oghara, Delta State from February 8 to 12 , evaluated current events in the country and globally as they relate to environmental justice and climate change.

The meeting attended by ERA/FoEN Board, Management, Staff, community campaigners on the platform of Host Communities Network (HoCoN), students and volunteers, expressed dissatisfaction over the state of the Nigerian environment.

Two Nigerians sue Shell at The Hague

Friday, 04 December 2009 05:10 |

December 3, 2009 01:59AMT
By Elor Nkereuwem

For the first time, a court in The Hague, The Netherlands, will today begin a sitting to determine the liability of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS), the parent
company of the Nigerian multinational oil company Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), for oil spills in Nigeria.
Two Nigerians, Fidelis Oguru and Alali Efanga, who claim that their sources of livelihood had been destroyed as a result of oil spills from SPDC's facilities, have
dragged the parent company of SPDC, RDS, to the courts in The Netherlands. The men, in conjunction with Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie), an
environment organisation which campaigns against environmental damage, have brought the legal proceedings against SPDC and RDS alleging that "as the result of SPDC's
negligence, agricultural lands have been devastated, drinking water polluted, fish ponds made unusable and the environment and health of local people harmed."
According to the group, the oil spill took place on June 26, 2005 from a high pressure pipe-line, a facility owned by SPDC in Oruma, Bayelsa State. The group also
said that the spill happened in the rainy season which aided the spread of the oil further into the forest and the creeks up to the community's drinking water supply.

Nigerian farmers versus Shell Trial begins

Thursday, 03 December 2009 15:14 |

A unique court case, brought by four Nigerian victims from Goi-Ogoni, Rivers State, Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom State and Oruma, Rivers State of Shell oil leaks, in conjunction with Milieudefensie [Friends of the Earth Netherlands], begins on Thursday in the court at The Hague. This is the first time in history that a Dutch company has been brought to trial before a Dutch court for damages occurring abroad.

The Nigerian farmers and fishers, who lost their livelihoods after oil from leaking Shell pipelines streamed over their fields and fishing ponds, are claiming compensation from the Dutch multinational. They also want Shell to clean up the oil which remains in the ground, so that they can fish and farm once again.

Nnimmo is one of Time's Heroes of the Environment

Tuesday, 29 September 2009 07:43 |

Nnimmo Bassey - By Stephan Faris

It wasn't an oil spill that made Nnimmo Bassey an environmentalist. It was a massacre — the 1990 assault by Nigeria's armed forces on the village of Umuechem, where residents of the oil-rich Niger Delta had accused the Shell Petroleum Development Company of environmental degradation and economic neglect. In two days of violence, 80 people died and nearly 500 houses were destroyed. "We woke up from a sleep and ... everything was collapsing around us," says Bassey, 51, head of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth.

Read the full article

CSD17 Opens

Wednesday, 06 May 2009 17:10 |

The 17th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, CSD17, opened on Monday at the UN Headquarters in New York. It is expected this time around that Africa will be in the spotlight throughout the negotiations at this policy session of CSD-17.

This is to be expected because the continent has been set as a subtheme besides others like agriculture, rural development, land, desertification, drought, water and sanitation. When the sum of all these parts is taken together, all fingers point to Africa as a continent that has been left behind in the global scheme of things.

Chair, Friends of the Earth International and ERA director, Nnimmo Bassey has been in attendance and there will be a side event on "Overturning False Solutions to the Food Crisis" today.

Daily proceedings from stakeholder perspectives can be followed up at the Stakeholder Forum