AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
MEDIA ADVISORY

27 September2010

AI Index: AFR 44/019/2010

Nigeria celebrates its 50^thyear of independence on October 1

“Because of oil exploration there are no more fisheries…We experience the hell of hunger and poverty. Plants and animals do not grow well, the fish have died…”
- Jonah Gbemre of Delta State, April 2008

Since the 1960s, oil has generated an estimated $600 billion. Despite this, the majority of the Niger Delta’s population lives in poverty. According to the UN, the area suffers from administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth, squalor and endemic conflict.

This poverty, and its contrast with the wealth generated by oil, has become one of the world’s starkest and most disturbing examples of the “resource curse”.

Amnesty International has spokespeople available to discuss the impact of the oil industry on the human rights situation in Nigeria in the past 50 years.

We can also provide interviews on the use of torture and extra-judicial killings by security forces, the death penalty and housing rights/forced evictions over the past 50 years.

For further information, photos or to arrange an interview by ISDN or phone please contact Katy Pownall on +44 (0)207 413 5729 or email katy.pownall@amnesty.org