Title: Conflict in the Niger Delta - Wikipedia
Headings: Conflict in the Niger Delta
Conflict in the Niger Delta
Contents
Background
Ogoniland
Ijaw unrest (1998–1999)
Creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (2000–2003)
Timeline
Emergence of armed groups in Niger Delta (2003–2004)
Nigerian oil crisis (2004–2006)
Royal Dutch Shell controversy
Piracy and kidnappings (2006–2014)
Military crackdown (2008–2009)
Presidential amnesty program (2009–2016)
2016–present conflict
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: The Nigerian government could now distribute the land to oil companies as it deemed fit, said the Human Rights Watch. The 1970s and 1980s saw government promised benefits for the Niger Delta peoples fall through and fail to materialize, with the Ogoni growing increasingly dissatisfied and their environmental, social, and economic apparatus rapidly deteriorating. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was formed in 1992, spearheaded by Ogoni playwright and author Ken Saro-Wiwa, became the major organization representing the Ogoni people in their struggle for ethnic and environmental rights. Its primary targets, and at times adversaries, have been the Nigerian government and Royal Dutch Shell . Ogoni Flag created by Ken Saro-Wiwa
Beginning in December 1992, the conflict between the Ogoni and the oil companies escalated to a level of greater seriousness and intensity on both sides. Both parties began carrying out acts of violence and MOSOP issued an ultimatum to the oil companies (Shell, Chevron, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) demanding some $10 billion in accumulated royalties, damages and compensation, and "immediate stoppage of environmental degradation", as well as negotiations for mutual agreement on all future drilling. The Ogonis threatened mass action to disrupt oil company operations if they failed to comply with MOSOP demands, and thereby shifted the focus of their actions from the unresponsive federal government to the oil companies producing in the region. The rationale for this assignment of responsibility was the benefits accrued by the oil companies from extracting the natural wealth of the Ogoni homeland, and the central government's neglectful failure to act. The government responded by banning public gatherings and declaring disturbances to oil production acts of treason. Oil extraction from the territory slowed to a trickle of 10,000 barrels per day (1,600 m 3 /d) (.5% of the national total).