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Rights group criticises Shell

    ABIDJAN

    A Nigerian environmental and minority rights group has criticised the oil company Royal Dutch Shell for its response to an oil spill this week in the southern state of Rivers, the group said in a news release on Thursday.

    The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), said the oil company had not responded adequately to the spill. MOSOP described the leakage as a “serious and ongoing oil blow-out which deserves sensitive and comprehensive action by Shell to prevent a disastrous fire, aside from pollution risks from the toxic cloud of oil and gas which is coming from the site.”

    Shell said on Wednesday that it had taken steps to control the oil spill at the Yorla oil field in the east of Ogoni, news organisations reported. However the oil company warned that 14 of its abandoned oil wells in the area could blow up without warning, the BBC reported on Thursday. Company spokesman Donal Boham said Shell withdrew from Ogoni without being allowed to carry out proper evacuation procedures and described the wells as “potential time bombs.”

    Shell was forced to abandon production in Ogoniland in 1993 as a result of a militant campaign by MOSOP, which accused the company of exploitation and causing widespread pollution.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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