I was pretty discusted with shell after watching this video..

news.bbc.co.uk

The Niger Delta, a region the size of England, is littered with violence and gas flares - the offshoot of oil extraction - whose roar and heat you can feel for hundreds of metres around.

The flares have become symbols of the region and the paradox that exists in an area where you find one of the world's richest oil regions alongside some of the poorest people.

People here blame the fallout from the oil industry for their ruined environment, ill health and unemployment.

On the waterfront at Port Harcourt, the city at the heart of the oil industry, we found slums where people live without running water and electricity, and miles from the nearest school or clinic. No wonder many are angry.

One woman told us: "We are suffering. We don't have jobs. They make so much money with oil, but we don't see it."

Shootouts and stolen oil

With unemployment at 90%, many people of the Delta are tempted to join the criminal gangs who terrorise the area, kidnapping foreign oil workers and launching raids on oil platforms.

We joined the Joint Task Force, set up to restore order to the area, as they patrolled the streets and waterways - searching cars for weapons used by the gangs and boats for stolen barrels of oil.

"We are very happy, very happy that you are here," said drivers who were forced to stop and open their boots for inspection. The law-abiding citizen is weary after more than a decade of violence.

Maintaining the gangs is funded by the theft of oil on a huge scale - up to 200,000 barrels a day.

The Nigerian delta might be blessed with the world's best quality oil but, for the security forces, it's a nightmare. Half of the delta region is made up of water - thousands of creeks in which the gangs can operate with ease and from where they launched their most daring recent attack - on the Bonga oil platform.

Built by the Shell Oil company more than 100km offshore it was thought to be safely out of their reach. But gunmen sprayed the platform with machine gun fire, forcing it into automatic shutdown - it took weeks for production to be resumed.


The maze of waterways makes policing the delta incredibly difficult

RPGs and AK47s

It took us as many weeks to negotiate a meeting with the man who led the attack.

A dawn rendezvous with a boat and a three-hour journey through the creeks brought us to "General Boyloaf" and his boys in training, careering through the water in their high-speed boats and firing their RPGs and AK47s for our benefit.

Why did the general attack the Bonga platform?


"We really wanted to prove that nowhere is untouchable, that is why we visited there. We wanted to make this point because Shell, Chevron, all of them are moving offshore. So we visited them to prove that there is nowhere to hide," he said.

Maintenance of the gangs, their boats and weapons is expensive and is funded by the theft of oil on a huge scale - up to 200,000 barrels a day.

It's called illegal bunkering - the gangs break into and siphon oil out of the pipelines which run close to the shore.

The gangs are well-armed and the Joint Task Force is ill-equipped for the challenge.

They've managed to seize only a few of the barges used to ferry the stolen oil to huge tankers waiting offshore to take it on to the world's refineries. It's a huge and sophisticated operation on an international scale.



'Blood oil'

The Head of Shell in Nigeria, Basil Omiyi, says: "It's a huge concern and a major issue for the government and the state government because of loss of revenue.

"You will recall that the President of Nigeria on two occasions has called it 'blood oil' - similar to 'blood diamonds' - and that it requires international collaboration to resolve it and I think I agree very strongly with that."

When the drop in legal production in the Nigerian Delta helped push the price of oil to new heights last year, the British prime minister offered military aid to the Nigerian Government to tackle the problem.

The officers of the Task Force told us that they want helicopter gunships and new boats and ships. They're unlikely to get what they want.

Human rights groups reacted in horror to the prime minister's offer, pointing out it is often the politicians themselves who arm and use the gangs for their own, political purposes.

'We will shoot them down'

The gangs are often better armed than the force charged with policing them
The offer has now been scaled down - to training help only - but it did have one, dramatic result. In retaliation, Gen Boyloaf called off a temporary ceasefire.

"The message I have for Gordon Brown", he says, "is to tell him that no matter the para-assistance, the amenities they bring from the United Kingdom and elsewhere.... we will make sure we will shoot them down."

For the time being, guns on both sides will continue to exchange fire on the creeks of the Delta and the communities who live at the heart of the oil-producing areas will continue to wonder whatever good the oil wealth has ever done for them.


The gangs are often better armed than the force charged with policing them

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sue Lloyd Roberts' film on oil and violence in the Niger Delta can be seen in the UK on Newsnightonline and on BBC Two at 2230 on 8 January. An extended version can be seen on Our World on BBC World News - check schedules for local times.

Source

is that a spice lol

im terrible at typing , try to type too fast and hit wrong keys

I have researched about the West-Side Boys, just by reading about what the Irish Rangers went through & The Rescue Plan carried out by The SBS, SAS & The RMC, that was damned interesting!

I agree with you about it being a complicated matter to discuss.


Sorry I spelt it the European Way Jinx, LOL (seing I lived in Poland for 4 years).

there are gangs like that all over Africa, its a lawless place , they see the wealth of the black man in the uk and America and they want a piece of it but they are not going to get it working so crime is the only option.

Yes, that is what the book actually said about Africa as a whole.

From a good frinend I know eho lived in S Africa for a time, what happened to him and the situation he accidently walked into was something to hear about.

I'm not talking about as anything quire as OTT in the true sense as The Westside Boys, but about local Crime Gangs in a city in the country of S Africa.

a lot of these gangs are making there way into europe , there way of life is so different than ours, all they know is violence to get what they want.

they have big problems in places such as span and Italy with the African gangs that control the drugs in the coastal towns. the gangs drugs and crime are slowl;y spreading into mainland Europe.

these people have not got anything so will do anything thay can to survive.

some of these people have even made it to the uk and African gangs are operating in and around our cities

Samali's @ a guess?

This member has abstained from posting to avoid the possibility of provoking two of the most clueless fuckwits ever given access to the internet any further than they already have been.

Click the eye and jog on then ..

Technofish "the African nations as a whole are way behind the rest of the world in civilisation terms , same can be said with the middle east" I really cant believe you said this??? Im not much of an expert on history and civilisations but erm look before the crusades went about the brutal violence and oppressing of non-violent nations (in a fairly neandethal way) I think you will find that those civilisations were doing quite well! Just because you think your way of life is better doesn't actually mean it is. How can you make that judgement now on who is more advanced?

Don't really agree with a lot of what he's said, but he's right in the respect that technologically we are more advanced.

what it sounds like your saying is the African people were doing quite well before white men came across to there lands , they were happy herding animals and dancing round fires.

that they have no need for oil and diamonds and any other natural resource and the wealth that it brings because they are primitive and do not have a macdonalds or supermarket to spend there cash in.

africa is behind the rest of the world in a lot of ways, not all of the continent but a good 90% of it is.

Its reported that it is highly unlikely that Africa will reach its MDG (millenium development goals ) set by the UN , these goals have a deadline of 2015




There are currently fifteen African countries involved in war, or are experiencing post-war conflict and tension.

In West Africa, the countries include Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

In East Africa, the countries include Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda. In Central Africa, the countries include Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda.

In North Africa, the country is Algeria and in South Africa, the countries include Angola and Zimbabwe.

more money is spent on killing people than helping people in Africa

I think they will easily achieve goal 8 (in fact for the most part it already has). Most African nations have developed partnerships with global organisations who are currently developing the hell out of their natural resources....

;)

1 step closer , before we can help Africa they need to help themselves.

precisely.

That reads like a (typical UN) feminist agenda, with no mention of tackling (intra-male) conflicts!

Indeed, and (this time round) we're not guilty.

Mail Online: How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried

Mail Online: How China has created a new slave empire in Africa

Fast Company: China In Africa

the Chinese are tipped to be the next super power , i have a conspiracy theory that the financial problems we are told we are having now are made up.

made up so we stop buying , as a result china will suffer as they make most goods these days. resulting in the west being in control still.

also rod hull is still alive and works in aldi

unfortunately, i think the theory falls down when you realise just how much currency reserves china have en.wikipedia.org . in fact, if anything the complete opposit is more likey to be true . i.e china is somehow causing or making the current financial crisis, so that eventually they will hold a massive financial stranglehold over america

Almost $2 trillion according to this news.bbc.co.uk article. I'm not sure that China is looking to gain a stranglehold over America, or at least it seems that way in the BBC article above, even if the west is looking toward China for a bailout.

I would say I'd put another two word in: "Before we can help Africa they should to TRY to help themselves!"

But there again people are ostly dieing due to their Non-Caring Governments, and the same is happening on other continents too, meaning China, N. America, & S. America, India, the former Communist-Run Countries in Europe too!