Nigerian police killing at will, says Amnesty

BBC
Nigerian police are carrying out a shocking level of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, Amnesty International says.
The rights group’s three-year inquiry details cases of prisoners tortured to death and shootings at roadblocks.

Nigeria’s policy towards the Ijaw

Pambazuka News
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
The Nigerian government is bleeding the Niger Delta dry of its oil, but the Ijaw ethnic community that actually owns most of the land is left empty-handed, writes Sabella Ogbobode Abidde in this week’s Pambazuka News. Abidde stresses that Niger Deltans cannot be treated in this fashion and that their will must [...]

NIGERIA: Catholic Bishops Indict Government for Islamist Killings

KAFANCHAN, September 15, 2009 ([  ] CISA) -The Catholic Church in Nigeria says government inaction was responsible for the untimely and violent death of over 2,000 innocent people during the Islamist uprising in the northern parts of the country last month.

Nigeria-Italy Human Trafficking Rises Sharply

One World
ROME, Sep 11 (IPS) – An alarming rise has been recorded in the number of Nigerian girls trafficked to Italy.
Last year 1,782 young girls from Nigeria arrived in Lampedusa, compared to 166 in 2007, human rights organisations say. Lampedusa, an Italian island 205 km from the Italian coast, located between Tunisia and Sicily, is [...]

Climate Change and Environmental Responsabilities

A COMMUNIQUE ARISING FROM A TWO-DAY WORKSHOP ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES ORGANISED BY CATHOLIC INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT, JUSTICE, PEACE AND CARITAS (CIDJAP) ENUGU, HELD ON 17 AND 18TH JUNE, 2009 AT OFUOBI AFRICAN CENTRE, ENUGU 

NIGERIA: Slow Start for Niger Delta Amnesty

   By Sam Olukoya 
 
 IPS) – Nigeria’s president Umaru Yar’Adua is embarking on an ambitious move to end armed insurgency in the country’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. Under a government initiative which started on Aug, 6, militants in the region have 60 days to hand over their arms in return for a presidential amnesty, unconditional pardon and [...]

Nigerian Islamist attacks spread

 BBC
Dozens of people have been killed after Islamist militants staged three attacks in northern
Nigeria, taking the total killed in two days of violence to 150.
 A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes. 
Witnesses told the BBC a gun battle raged [...]

Niger Delta Standoff

Foreign Policy in Focus 
 Kia Mistilis | July 9, 2009
Editor: John Feffer and Jen Doak

Behind fighter-planes and gunboats, Nigerian forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta on May 13, displacing 30,000 people and sparking a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of civilians fleeing destroyed villages are now trapped between armed resistance groups and the Nigerian military. [...]

Nigerian-bishop asks warring parties to end violence, embrace dialogue

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNS) — Bishop Gabriel Dunia of Auchi, Nigeria has asked warring parties in the Niger Delta to put aside their weapons and allow peace to return to the region. The bishop’s June 9 appeal came on the heels of a report that Nigerian soldiers had uncovered two graves containing the bodies of 12 [...]

Shell Settles Human Rights Suit for $15.5M

Common Dreams
by Chris Kahn 
NEW YORK — Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement Monday to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria’s former military regime.