After three years of litigation, Shell Nigeria will pay the Bodo community in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta US$83.5 million (£55 million) for two oil spills in 2008 that “destroyed thousands of hectares of mangroves and the fish and shellfish that sustained villagers,” according to the Associated Press.
Shell will pay £35 million to 15,600 fishers and farmers and £20 million to the community. It originally offered £4,000 to the entire community.
“We’ve always wanted to compensate the community fairly,” Managing Director Mutiu Sunmonu now says.
“Chief Sylvester Kogbara, chairman of the Bodo Council of Chiefs and Elders, said he hoped ‘that Shell will take their host communities seriously now’ and embark on a cleanup of all of Ogoniland,” AP reports. “A U.N. Environment Program report has estimated it could take up to 30 years to fully rehabilitate Ogoniland, an area where villagers have been in conflict with Shell for decades.”
