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SDN Newsroom

SDN staff are in the Niger Delta working directly with communities affected by the conflict and the social and environmental issues related to the extraction of Oil and Gas. We also work at the international level with Amnesty International and others trying to make a difference to the people of the Delta. Read the latest news as highlighted by SDN here.

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SDN staff are on the ground in Nigeria and will be updating this area regularly...

(For interviews or more information please contact + 44 (0) 7966755751)

Justine Ijeomah Recognised at Leading International Conference for Human Rights Defenders in Dublin - Fri, 16 Sep 2011

More than a hundred and twenty Human Rights Defenders from 85 countries worldwide gathered in the historic setting of Dublin Castle from the 14th – 16 September for Front Line's “6th Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders”.

The Nation: UNEP Report: NNPC, partners will restore Ogoni land, says Oniwon - Fri, 19 Aug 2011

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engineer Austen Oniwon on Thursday said the corporation and its Joint Venture partners will work together to recover Ogoni land and give life back to the community.

Reuters: Nigerian president sets up oil spill report team - Thu, 18 Aug 2011

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday constituted a committee to review this month's United Nations report on oil spills in Africa's largest crude exporter, which was critical of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and the Nigerian state-oil firm.

228 Days Since the Federal Government was told the Ogale People are being poisoned - Wed, 17 Aug 2011

NACGOND- a coalition of NGOs in the Niger Delta campaigning on oil spills and gas flaring – has come out today to protest the lack of action over contaminated water in the Ogale community in Eleme, Ogoni.

AFP: Polluted Nigerian region may need biggest ever cleanup - Tue, 16 Aug 2011

BODO, Nigeria — The air smells like poison, the creek water carpeted with crude, and the boat operator covers his nose as he steps on a jetty in a region hit by what may be the world's worst oil contamination.

'Protection of land, waters and health of communities should be paramount' says coalition - Wed, 10 Aug 2011

The National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta (NACGOND) welcomes the release of the UNEP report that highlights the extraordinary scale of oil spills in the Ogoni area of the Niger Delta.

BBC: UN call for $1bn fund to clean up Nigeria oil spills - Fri, 5 Aug 2011

The United Nations has called for a $1bn (£613m) fund to clean up oil pollution in the Delta region of Nigeria.

It comes as the oil giant Shell has accepted liability for two oil spills in the region - and now faces compensation claims running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Guardian: Niger delta oil spills clean-up will take 30 years, says UN - Fri, 5 Aug 2011

The UN Environment Programme (Unep) has announced that Shell and other oil firms systematically contaminated a 1,000 sq km (386 sq mile) area of Ogoniland, in the Niger delta, with disastrous consequences for human health and wildlife.

'Nigerian system for preventing and redressing oils spills broken' says coalition - Fri, 5 Aug 2011

NACGOND (National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta) is very pleased to welcome developments announcing that oil giant Shell has accepted liability for two oil spills in Bodo, Rivers state, Nigeria. However, the fact that the Bodo community had to pursue Shell to a court in London, before a credible response on these two massive oil spills could be extracted, highlights that almost all of the Nigerian system of oil spill prevention, response, clean up and redress is broken.

UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health - Fri, 5 Aug 2011

The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.

Patrick Naagbanton on Shell's oil spill in Bodo - Fri, 5 Aug 2011

Shell’s admission of liability for two massive oil spills in 2008-2009 in my village of Bodo in the Niger Delta is a step forward in the long struggle for corporate accountability.

234 Next: FG seeks foreign support for amnesty programme - Thu, 21 Jul 2011

For the prevailing peace in the Niger Delta region to last, the international community and the multinational oil companies must lend their support to the amnesty programme, special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, has said.

UN: no one to blame for Niger Delta oil leaks - Tue, 19 Jul 2011

Previous reports suggested the UN would hold local Ogoni people and not Dutch-based multinational Shell responsible for the large-scale oil leaks. It was suggested that this controversial conclusion had resulted in more than a year’s delay in publishing the report.

Bloomberg: Oil Companies Fail to Bolster Peace in Nigeria, Presidential Adviser Says - Fri, 15 Jul 2011

Peace in Nigeria’s main oil- producing area is threatened by the failure of companies to invest in improving residents’ living standards, a special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan said.

Vanguard: Stop Shell from selling oil wells, NDYM urges FG - Wed, 13 Jul 2011

UGHELLI-NATIONAL President of the Niger Delta Youth Movement, NDYM, Mr. Godspower Odenema, yesterday, urged the Federal Government and the international community to call Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to order over its insistence on selling some of its oil wells in the Niger Delta region.

234 Next: Delta communities seek alternative to gas flaring policies - Sun, 10 Jul 2011

Global statistics indicate that Nigeria ranks next to Russia in the volume of gas flared, just as it loses revenue estimated at N375 million annually.

Environmentalists say that gases emitted into the atmosphere during such flares are hazardous as they include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other carcinogenic volatile organic compounds as dioxin, benzene and toluene.

National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta - Thu, 16 Jun 2011

NACGOND evolved to tackle the issues discussed at the Chatham House meeting and to negotiate a more transparent and responsive mechanism on oil spills and the stoppage of gas flaring in the Niger Delta in preference for alternative best practices in the industry.

Reuters: Nigeria oil reforms to be taken up by new parliament - Wed, 1 Jun 2011

ABUJA, June 1 (Reuters) - Wide-ranging reforms to Nigeria's oil industry will be left to a new parliament to consider but the bill may not have to go back to a first reading, reducing the risk of further long delays, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Vanguard: John Togo’s death eases tension in riverine communities - Wed, 1 Jun 2011

WARRI — THE tension that gripped residents of Ayakoromor, Ogodobiri and other riverine communities in Burutu and Bomadi Local Government Areas of Delta State during the man-hunt for renegade John Togo, has subsided, following the exhuming of his corpse by men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger Delta.

Freedom of Information Act Signals Consolidation of Nigeria’s Democracy - Tue, 31 May 2011

Long awaited legislation will aid anti-corruption, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions, support justice and ensure more open society.