Ijaw
Like the Ogoni people, the Ijaw are a native tribe of Nigeria that have been mutually exploited by their government and oil companies. The Ijaw are beleived to be some of the earliest inhabitants of Nigeria and have like the Ogoni, faced certain issues with the western oil companies. In 1998 the Ijaw Youth Movement(IYM) was formed as a civil rights organization and issued the Kaiama Declaration which addressed concerns over their land ownership and health and asked for all oil companies to withdraw from the area. The IYM also spawned 'Operation Climate Change' in which people would march in a campaign of prayer,celebration and protest against the oil companies. The Military responded by sending 10-15,000 troops to attack protesters which resulted in three deaths and 25 arrests. Later in 1999, 100 troops from a Chevron facility attacked two Ijaw communities killing four people in total including the leader of one community and a 7 year old girl, along with 62 missing after the attacks, the troops also set the villages ablaze, killed the livestock, and destroyed all fishing equipment.
IYM members on oil spill-
quotes
"That the unabating damage done to our fragile natural environment and to the health of our people is due in the main to uncontrolled exploration and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas which has led to numerous oil spillages, uncontrolled gas flaring, the opening up of our forests to loggers, indiscriminate canalisation, flooding, land subsidence, coastal erosion, earth tremors etc. Oil and gas are exhaustible resources and the complete lack of concern for ecological rehabilitation, in the light of the Oloibiri experience, is a signal of impending doom for the peoples of Ijawland."
- Kaiama Declaration excript
- Kaiama Declaration excript