{"id":7686,"date":"2026-07-29T20:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta"},"modified":"2026-07-29T22:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T22:02:11","slug":"shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","title":{"rendered":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for accountability from Shell for decades of pollution in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, following the revelation of internal documents that show violations of regulations and deteriorating infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The organizations warned that Shell&#8217;s policies and operational practices threaten to leave affected communities to bear the costs of the &#8220;toxic legacy&#8221; left by oil extraction.<\/p>\n<p>According to a new report titled &#8220;Nigeria: Lifting the Veil,&#8221; the organizations analyzed emails, audits, internal presentations, and confidential reviews of Shell revealed in legal proceedings in the UK, showing a &#8220;broader human rights scandal&#8221; than previously known, with allegations of exceeding safety standards, neglecting known risks to pipeline safety, loss of well data, a weak leak detection system, and reliance on flawed monitoring of oil spills.<\/p>\n<p>The report states that Shell was aware of the risks posed by aging infrastructure and leaking pipelines, including an old pipeline internally described as a &#8220;basket,&#8221; yet continued to pump oil. It later preferred to sell its onshore operations rather than bear the costs of cleanup and dismantling, with an internal estimate of the costs of halting and operating assets at no less than $10.9 billion, indicating damage to 375 square kilometers of mangrove forests.<\/p>\n<p>The report on the local source&#8217;s website reveals that documents show Shell exempted its subsidiary in Nigeria from essential parts of global health and safety standards, maintaining illegal leak points on pipelines to avoid disrupting oil flow, despite warnings from the Nigerian military about potential &#8220;collusion&#8221; in oil theft. Internal reviews also showed serious weaknesses in pipeline management and the existence of hundreds of &#8220;lost&#8221; or undocumented wells in electronic tracking systems.<\/p>\n<p>The organizations emphasized that Shell cannot &#8220;take the oil and profits and leave the pollution behind,&#8221; urging Nigerian authorities to implement radical reforms in the oil sector oversight, enforce the publication of infrastructure audits, establish a comprehensive fund for cleaning the Niger Delta, and call on British and Dutch authorities to investigate whether Shell misled stakeholders, regulators, and affected communities regarding the extent of its environmental responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Among the seven organizations that signed the statement are The Corner House, the Resource Governance and Development Center, the &#8220;Medi&#8221; Initiative for Environmental Development, and the &#8220;Social Action&#8221; for Environmental Justice and Community Rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for accountability from Shell for decades of pollution in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, following the revelation of internal documents that show violations of regulations and deteriorating infrastructure. The organizations warned that Shell&#8217;s policies and operational practices threaten to leave affected communities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-7686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miscellaneous","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Press English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1064\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\"},\"wordCount\":400,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Miscellaneous\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\",\"name\":\"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta - Africa Press English\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg\",\"width\":1620,\"height\":1064,\"caption\":\"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press English\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta - Africa Press English","description":"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta","og_description":"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","og_site_name":"Africa Press English","article_published_time":"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1620,"height":1064,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta","datePublished":"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta"},"wordCount":400,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg","keywords":["Africa"],"articleSection":["Miscellaneous","Policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta","name":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta - Africa Press English","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-29T20:36:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-29T22:02:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Seven human rights and environmental organizations, including a local source, have called for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/07\/sm_1785362438.042908.jpg","width":1620,"height":1064,"caption":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/shell-violated-rights-in-niger-delta#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shell Violated Rights in Niger Delta"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/","name":"Africa Press English","description":"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7693,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions\/7693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}