Since Nigeria achieved independence from British rule in 1960, successive military and democratic governments have failed to deliver the most basic economic development to the peoples of the Niger Delta.

This is despite the huge wealth that has been derived from the region's oil and gas reserves. Nigeria is currently the eighth largest supplier of petroleum globally, and provides the USA with approximately one fifth of its oil.

As of writing, militants have shut in a quarter of Nigeria's oil production, 800 000 barrels per day. An increasing trend of politically motivated violence ahead of 2007's elections, and gang warfare that has been on the rise since 2003, causes over 1500 conflict deaths a year. This places the conflict in the Niger Delta on a par with ongoing violence in Chechnya or Colombia.

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