Amnesty Inter­na­tional has released a report that talks about the Niger Delta region of Nige­ria. The Niger Delta is rich with oil, and only a few peo­ple get rich from the oil.

How­ever, wastes from the oil pro­duc­tion has caused con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the area’s water and soil. Many in Delta region have not seen any ben­e­fits in their lives from the sale of the oil.

The poverty and resent­ment have spawned vio­lent groups who sab­o­tage the oil pro­duc­tion, only lead­ing to more pol­lu­tion. The mili­tia groups cause oil spills, waste dump­ing, and set fires to wells.

From Canada com, this AFP tells us more about the Amnesty report on Nige­ria.

In a report released Tues­day, Amnesty described the sit­u­a­tion in the Niger Delta, home to 31 mil­lion peo­ple, as a “human rights tragedy” which has fuelled anger and con­flict.

“Peo­ple liv­ing in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with, and wash in pol­luted water; they eat fish con­t­a­m­i­nated with oil and other tox­ins — if they are lucky enough to still be able to find fish,” said the report.

Farm­land in the region, one of the most impor­tant wet­lands on earth, is being destroyed by oil spills.

“After oil spills the air they breathe reeks of oil, gas and other pol­lu­tants; they com­plain of breath­ing prob­lems, skin lesions and other health prob­lems, but their con­cerns are not taken seri­ously,” the report added.

Amnesty blames both the gov­ern­ment and multi-national oil giants for the rights abuses in the south of Africa’s most pop­u­lous country.

“Their 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,” the report said.

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