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Last week A UK 🇬🇧 supreme court denied compensation to oil spill victims in the Niger Delta after the #Shell oil leak severely harmed their water, crops, and livelihoods, as well as destroying their land.
Shell's Bonga oil field leaked 40,000 barrels of oil off Nigeria's 🇳🇬coast in 2011.
The leak contaminated forests, farms, and drinking water for 27,800 people in the Niger Delta.
However, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that they have missed the window for legal action.
The Niger Delta is one of the most polluted areas on the planet.
Every year, hundreds of oil spills pollute the water with cancer-causing toxins.
Life expectancy is only 41 years.
Under the British colonial administration, Shell began drilling for oil in Nigeria in the 1950s.
Since then, thousands of oil spills have been traced to Shell Eni and other firms.
Shell attributes almost all spills to "sabotage."
Prior to 2011, the UN estimated that cleaning up Shell's prior oil spills in Ogoniland may take 30 years.
Since then, at least 1,369 other Shell oil spills have occurred, resulting in the release of nearly 4.6 million gallons of oil.
The delta region is Africa's biggest oil producer, but that mostly benefits companies like Shell, Chevron, Eni, and ExxonMobil.
70% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
The majority of oil wealth is concentrated in the hands of government elites and international oil firms.
One day Nigerian security forces brutally crushed peaceful anti-oil rallies in the 1990s, killing at least 80 Ogoni people.
Shell was charged with participation in the crackdowns and murders of the Ogoni Nine activists.
However, it denied this, and the latter case was dismissed by a Dutch court.
Shell is now facing more lawsuits from communities in the Niger Delta affected by oil pollution.
#shell #people #oilandgas #pollution #nigerdelta #fossilfuels #environment #polluterspay
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