Sunday, January 28, 2007
Nigerian Freedom Fighters
12/21/2006, NIGERIA, Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is demanding $1.5 billion in compensation from Royal Dutch Shell for environmental pollution, and asking for a greater share of government oil revenues.
The situation in the Niger Delta dates back to Nigeria's pre-independent colonial days when the Willink (Minorities and Fiscal Commission), in 1958, recommended that the delta region of the Niger should be regarded as a special developmental area requiring particular economic assistance.
This recommendation was never implemented. The number of deaths resulting from poverty and misery in this endangered region as a result of this non-compliance has never been investigated. Throughout the years, children, women and the aged have been massacred in Yenagoa, Odi, Odioma, Warri, Port Harcourt, and many other parts of the Delta due to the low-intensity war.
The most recent group to emerge continuing this struggle are the MEND, who represent the Ijaw people, the majority tribe in the Delta and claim to represent a union of all the militant groups in the Niger Delta.
// posted by Marijo Zilstra @ 12:53 PM 
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