Published On 11/11/2025
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Last update: 01:42 (Mecca time)
Amnesty International called on the Nigerian government to completely clear the names of 9 environmental activists who were executed 30 years ago, and who had fought to protect the Niger Delta from the activities of the giant oil company, Shell.
This call coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Nigerian government’s execution – which the organization described as “brutal” – of 9 of the most prominent environmental activists known as the “Ogoni Nine,” and this year also coincided with the start of the United Nations climate conference in Brazil.
The Ogoni Nine protests in 1995 highlighted the catastrophic cost of the fossil fuel industry on the climate, human lives and the environment, and the persistence of poverty in oil-producing areas.
Last June, the Nigerian government granted amnesty to the Ogoni Nine, and although Amnesty International welcomed the step, it considered it insufficient to achieve justice for these men and their families.
“Although the pardon is a step forward, the nine activists deserve a full exoneration,” said Issa Sanusi, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, adding, “These men were unjustly executed for a crime they did not commit, and their families have suffered enough and deserve justice.”
Sanusi explained that the nine activists, led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, were brutally executed in 1995 by “a military regime that sought to conceal the crimes of Shell and other oil companies that destroyed the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of Niger Delta residents due to repeated oil leaks and spills.”
The international organization considered that the executions were “the culmination of a violent campaign of repression launched by the Nigerian military regime to silence the protests of the Ogoni People’s Survival Movement led by Ken Saro-Wiwa against pollution resulting from oil leaks and gas flaring.”
Sanusi said: “Extensive reports by Amnesty International found that Shell deliberately provided encouragement and support to the military authorities to stop the movement’s protests, despite its prior knowledge of the human rights violations committed by those authorities, and its direct targeting of Saro-Wiwa and the movement.”
In 2018, the organization submitted its findings to the International Crimes Unit of the Dutch Public Prosecution Office to assess whether what Shell was criminally liable for its role in suppressing the Ogoni protests.
According to a special letter from the Dutch authorities to the organization, a massive raid on 43 Ogoni villages carried out by the Nigerian army, which led to the killing of many civilians, came at the request of Shell to secure its operations in March 1994, and it knew or should have known that this would lead to excessive use of force.
Despite this, the Dutch authorities decided “not to open a criminal investigation against Shell, under the pretext of insufficient evidence that the company intentionally killed the demonstrators, or that there is a realistic possibility of collecting such evidence.” But Amnesty International confirms that the available evidence is “sufficient to open a criminal investigation against Shell.”
The repercussions of the execution of the Ogoni Nine are still being felt in local communities today. For 60 years, Shell and other oil companies have been “responsible for oil leaks and spills resulting from worn-out pipelines, unmaintained wells and botched clean-up operations,” which have harmed the health and livelihood of some 30 million people living in the Niger Delta, most of them in extreme poverty.
The leaks also caused permanent destruction of agricultural lands, waterways and drinking water, and led to serious diseases and deprived communities of agriculture and fishing.
The organization’s representative considered that the execution of these activists gave the Nigerian government and oil companies, including Shell, an implicit license to suppress protests and terrorize residents of the Niger Delta who are demanding justice and an end to toxic pollution.
But the Ugali and Belli communities affected by the oil spills refused to remain silent, as this year they filed a lawsuit against Shell before the British Royal Court to demand the cleanup of the pollution that destroyed their lands, health and environment.
On November 12, Amnesty International is preparing to issue a new report containing a detailed case study of oil pollution in the Niger Delta, in a special dedication to the memory of the Ogoni Nine.
The organization called on Shell to truly consult with the affected communities regarding its future plans to withdraw from the area, and for these consultations to include a comprehensive rehabilitation plan that includes all completed and ongoing clean-up operations, and to provide fair and adequate compensation for the severe damage to the communities as a result of the company’s operations.
It is noteworthy that the nine activists were executed on November 10, 1995, after a trial described as unfair on trumped-up charges of involvement in a murder, while their real crime was opposing the environmental destruction caused by Shell in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta.