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.

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Witch children scandal: Akwa Ibom govt wades into crisis - Fri, 2 Oct 2009 By TUNDE OYELEYE

THE Executive Governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Gov Goodswill Akpabio have set machineries in motion to arrest the crisis currently trailing the attacks on Child Right Rehabilitation Network Centre in Eket.

Humanists to organise an anti-witchcraft conference in Uyo - Fri, 2 Oct 2009

In October(21-22) humanists will be meeting in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State for yet another conference on witch hunt and child abuse.

UN World Habitat Day - 5th October - Thu, 1 Oct 2009

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

234Next.com: Paying the price of urban renewal - Tue, 8 Sep 2009

It starts to drizzle and Obinna Davidson finally lets his tears fall, probably relieved that his siblings and the journalist poking a recorder in his face, will be unable to distinguish between his tears and the rain. The Rivers State government began a demolition of structures at Njemanze, Port Harcourt, where Mr. Davidson has lived since birth, on August 27, and will proceed to neighbouring Abonnema Wharf community after that.

>> Read the full article and watch the slideshow at 123Next.com

BBC: Hope and rusty guns in Niger Delta - Mon, 7 Sep 2009

After years of fighting in the Niger Delta, some militants have begun to hand in weapons as part of a government amnesty programme. But as Caroline Duffield discovers the outbreak of peace might not be all that it seems.

>> Read the full article on the BBC's website

Amnesty International - Urgent Appeal on forced evictions in Port Harcourt - Fri, 4 Sep 2009

The government of a southern Nigerian state has begun forcibly evicting people to make way for a commercial development: thousands of people are at risk of forced eviction and destitution.

Residents revolt as UN HABITAT says 200,000 to be evicted or displaced - Thu, 27 Aug 2009

Thursday 27 August - Residents of the Njemanze Waterfront area of Port Harcourt today stopped a government buldozer in its tracks as it tried to demolish homes and businesses as part of the Rivers State Government 'urban renewal' plan.

The direct acion came as UN HABITAT released a new report about the ongoing forced evictions that have left tens of thousands of people in Port Harcourt living in fear of loosing their homes.

Video report: Another day, another oil spill from Shell - Wed, 26 Aug 2009

August 2009: A video of an oil spill by SHELL in the Edagberi community in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.

>> Watch the video from Sahara Reporters

'Courts halt demolitions of Waterfront' - Unconfirmed report - Wed, 19 Aug 2009

The Okrika chiefs, who's communities are under threat of imminent demolition by the Port Harcourt Governor, have apparently sued the state government and its agencies to halt the destruction of thousands of homes in Port-Harcourt.

Governor Amaechi has proposed the demolition of 35 waterfronts in Port-Harcourt which are home to thousands of impoverished residents.

Independent UN expert sounds alarm on mass forced evictions in Nigeria - Fri, 14 Aug 2009

13 August 2009 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced her concerns at the mass evictions planned by the River State Government in Nigeria which could leave hundreds of thousands of people homeless over the coming year.

Nigerian conference on witchcraft and child rights stormed - Thu, 30 Jul 2009

A conference on witchcraft and child rights in Calabar, Nigeria, was yesterday stormed by supporters a religious group who believe that some children of AIDS victims, orphans or those with learning disabilities are child witches.

Listen - BBC: Could Nigeria's volatile Delta region be headed for peace? - Mon, 27 Jul 2009 One of the main rebel leaders, Henry Okah, has been released thanks to a government amnesty.

So what do people in the Niger delta itself think of the move?

Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar has been speaking to some people in Port Harcourt and filed this report for BBC Network Africa.

>> Listen to this on the BBC World Service

Listen - BBC: Could peace be about to break out in Nigeria's Niger Delta? - Mon, 27 Jul 2009

Militants in the troubled oil-producing region have been waging a violent campaign for the past ten years, demanding that the region keep a greater share of the wealth it produces. Focus on Africa's Peter Okwoche spoke to the BBC's Ibrahim Dosara.

>> Listen to this on the BBC World Service

Police deny attacking charity home - Wed, 8 Jul 2009

The Police and civic groups working on children's rights are trading blames in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, on who ordered the Friday 3 July police attack on the 202 children in the charity home of the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN).

Campaign of Terror unleashed on Nigeria's 'Witch Children' - Tue, 7 Jul 2009

A coalition of Nigerian and International civil society organisations and churches have strongly condemned the recent campaign of terror that has been inflicted upon the so-called 'child witches' at the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network Centre (CRARN) in Eket, Akwa Ibom State by Lagos-based police officers. The work of CRARN, and the children they care for, was shown on Channel 4's Dispatches Programme on 'Saving Africa's Witch Children' in November 2008.

>> Download the full press release from Stepping Stones Nigeria

Nigerian senate passes gas flaring bill - Sun, 5 Jul 2009

The Senate on Thursday passed the gas flaring bill that bars oil companies operating in the country from flaring gas after December 31 2010. The Gas Flaring (Prohibition and Punishment) Bill 2009, scaled through third reading yesterday on the floor of the Senate at the conclusion of consideration of the 18 clauses of the bill.

>> Read the full article from the Nigerian Sun newspaper

Amnesty International says pollution has created human rights tragedy in the Niger Delta - Fri, 3 Jul 2009

(Abuja) Amnesty International today called the situation in the Niger Delta a "human rights tragedy," saying that the people of the Niger Delta have seen their human rights abused by oil companies that their government cannot or will not hold to account.

FT: Interactive map - Nigeria's oil heartland - Thu, 2 Jul 2009

Interactive map from the Financial Times of recent evets in the Delta including video links.

>> Visit the interactive map on the FT website

Shell on trial - Tue, 26 May 2009

Oil giant in the dock over 1995 murder of activist who opposed environmental degradation of Niger Delta.

>> Read the full article from the Independent

Nigeria hopes to learn from Shell 'mistakes' in oil-rich region - Tue, 26 May 2009

Squelching across the ooze in orange Wellington boots, Christian Kpandei cuts a lonely figure as he resumes digging a new home for his precious periwinkles.

Like many here in Kozo Creek, he says an oil slick that washed up late last year painted his dugout canoe black, stained mangroves with a waist-high sheen of sludge and smothered thousands of his spiral shellfish.

>> Read the full article at the FT

Militants resume delta pipeline attacks - Tue, 26 May 2009

Nigerian militants launched their first major strike against the oil industry since the start of a 10-day military offensive on Monday, blowing up a significant Chevron pipeline.

>> Read the full atricle in the FT

Press statement on clashes in Delta State - Fri, 22 May 2009

Organisations supporting the STAND (Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in the Niger Delta) project in the Niger Delta have called for urgent action to address the impact on communities of recent raids by the JTF against militant camps in the region.

Niger Delta army offensive killing civilians, says Amnesty - Fri, 22 May 2009

Hundreds of people, including many civilians, may have been killed in a Nigerian military offensive in the oil-rich Niger Delta over the past week, according to Amnesty International.

Civil Society Groups Call on ICC Prosecutor to Investigate Military Violence in the Niger Delta - Fri, 22 May 2009

THE HAGUE - As military attacks continue in the Niger Delta's oil producing Gbaramatu Kingdom, environmental and human rights groups call for an immediate investigation by the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor of those responsible.

>> Read the full article on Sahara ReportersÂ

Nigerian Crackdown Helps Lift Oil Prices - Fri, 22 May 2009

A week-long offensive by the Nigerian army to destroy militant camps in the oil-rich Niger Delta continued Wednesday, a day after Italian oil major Eni SpA declared force majeure on 52,000 barrels per day of crude production from the country.

>> Read the full aricle at Sahara Reporters

Heaps of Weapons Recovered from Raids in Creeks - Fri, 22 May 2009

As the Joint Task Force (JTF) continued its war against militants in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, the military yesterday displayed a mountain of weapons, ammunition and other sundry items it said were recovered from Tompolo's Camp 5, Iroko and Okerenkoko camps.

>> Read the full article in the Niger Delta Standard

Return Captured Soldiers, JTF Tells Ijaw Leaders - Fri, 22 May 2009

The Joint Task Force (JTF) has given insight into the genesis of the current campaign in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local council, Delta State, just as it vowed to continue the "Search and Rescue" mission until the officer and 11 soldiers who were believed to have been captured near the defunct Camp 5 were returned, dead or alive.

>> Read the full article in the Niger Delta StandardÂ

Offensive in Niger Delta continues - Fri, 22 May 2009

THE military authorities yesterday confirmed that troops deployed in the Niger Delta to fish out gunmen in the region have carried out successful operations in two more communities in Delta State.

>> Read the full article at oyibosonline

Joint Task Force establishes hotlines - Fri, 22 May 2009

The Joint Task Force has established a hotline to facilitate information flow between the JTF high command and patriotic Nigerians living in the Niger Delta region and beyond. Also the Senate yesterday waded into the war in the Niger Delta creeks with a directive to its Committee on Defence to investigate the crisis in the oil producing region of the country.

>> Read the full article at oyibosonlineÂ

Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold on the Nigerian military's ongoing offensive in the Niger Delta - Fri, 22 May 2009

"I am very concerned by reports that hundreds of civilians have been killed and potentially thousands displaced by the Nigerian military's ongoing offensive in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region..."

Amnesty International - Unlawful killings/displacement/access to medical care - Thu, 21 May 2009

Since 13 May 2009, thousands of villagers have been displaced and thousands more are trapped in the cross fire between the Joint Task Force (JTF), which is composed from troops of the army, navy, air force and the mobile police set up in 2004 to restore order in the Niger Delta and armed groups in Delta State, South West Nigeria.

Military Threats: Refugees Desert Ogbeh-Ijoh Hospital - Wed, 20 May 2009

By Omafume Amarun - Niger Delta Standard - 20 May 2008

The Humanitarian Crisis in Warri South West Local Government area following the displacement of Ijaw indigenes and others from villages bombed by the Joint Task Force (JTF) is being compounded by the alleged visit by some JTF soldiers to the Ogbe-Ijoh General Hospital where the refugees took temporary shelter. When the Niger Delta STANDARD visited the hospital, it was abandoned.

Excerpts from Rosiji Olarenwaju's story of the Oporoza attack - Tue, 19 May 2009

Told to the Nigerian Tribune May 18... "It was around 12.00 noon on May 15, 2009. I was at the library at Oporoza, I happened to be one of the corpers posted there...

Press release issued by Dr. Chris Ekiyor, President of the Ijaw Youth Council, May 18 - Tue, 19 May 2009

The IYC has watched with disdain and chagrin the recent bombardment of Ijaw communities by members of the JTF of the federal republic of Nigeria in the pretence of cleansing our communities off militants.

Statement from a member of MEND, received May 18 - Tue, 19 May 2009

It all started on wednesday 13th may 2009 when five gunboats of the Joint military Task Force (JTF) came to camp five and started shooting....

Stop the Attacks on Niger Delta Civilians by Nigerian Military - Tue, 19 May 2009

Call For Immediate Action to Stop the Attacks on Niger Delta Civilians by Nigerian Military

MOSOP, others task UN on N'Delta demilitarisation - Mon, 16 Mar 2009

From Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt) and Willie Etim (Yenagoa)

INDIGENOUS rights groups led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have urged the United Nations (UN) to prevail on the Nigerian government to demilitarise the Niger Delta.

Nigerians file suit against Shell in Dutch court - Mon, 10 Nov 2008

An environmentalist group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in the Netherlands on Friday, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up oil spills in Nigeria.