Ogoni people

The Ogoni are an ethnic group in Nigeria.

The half a million members counting people live mostly east of Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, also known as Ogoniland, with an area of approximately 1,000 km ². The residents of the Niger Delta are threatened by pollution associated with oil production by Royal Dutch Shell. Cause are dirty ( eg mangroves ) leaking crude oil, the agricultural land used for fishing waters and natural habitats. The simultaneous burning of natural gas ( associated gas) is the cause of a significant air pollution.

Around 80 percent of Nigerian oil be promoted in this region and the Shell Group earned from 1958 to 1993 an estimated 100 billion U.S. dollars by the promotion. In the interests of the oil industry in the country by 1993 around 23 villages of the Ogoni were destroyed.

The Ogoni are resisting the destruction of their livelihoods and strive with the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People ( MOSOP ) was founded in 1990 ( Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People ) their autonomy to.

Objectives of MOSOP were, inter alia, the political and cultural autonomy for the Ogoni, the rehabilitation of damaged by the oil production areas, as well as the participation of the population in the revenue from oil production. These objectives should be achieved without the use of any violence. For this purpose, called MOSOP several demonstrations to life, with some very notable successes.

The Shell oil company stopped the oil production in the Ogoni area after MOSOP called in January 1993, a demonstration which would bring the total of more than half of the Ogoni population - or about 300,000 people - participated. Because of these actions, however, the Ogoni area was occupied militarily by the government in the same year. However, the MOSOP struggles still prevent a resumption of oil production by Shell.

Chairman of the organization was after 1993 the writer, civil rights activist and winner of the Right Livelihood Award Ken Saro -Wiwa, who was hanged by the military government of Sani Abacha next eight colleagues in November 1995. His execution caused international sensation. From prison he wrote recently: " Alive I am a symbol of resistance. Dead I am the martyr, and thus more dangerous. "Nigeria has been ruled out as a response, with immediate effect from the Commonwealth of Nations.

In September 1993, there were serious clashes with the ethnic group of Andoni, where an estimated 1,000 Ogoni were killed and more than 30,000 were forced to flee from their homes. The MOSOP makes this the government and the oil companies responsible, which should have the Andoni led and funded to do so.