Nigeria // Current TV

Nigerian hyena handlers /Gadawan Kura/

These photographs came about after a friend emailed me an image taken on a cellphone... more

worrg
added this
24 days ago
|
0 comments

Nollywood Love: Inside The Booming Nigerian Film Industry

Nigeria may be best known for political upheavals and brutal civil wars, though over... more

sperlingreich
added this
2 months ago
|
1 comment

Mapping Africa’s tweets [infographic]

Which countries in the African continent are most active users of Twitter?... more

CurrentUK
added this
4 months ago
|
2 comments

In Praise of Atheism

Leo Igwe, a prominent Nigerian human rights activist, delivers this manifesto decrying... more

googygood
added this
4 months ago
|
1 comment

Child Slavery and Chocolate | Videos | Facts | Chocolate Industry Responses

CNN... . THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY . January 19th,... more

EthicalVegan
added this
4 months ago
|
26 comments

Nigerian Revolt 2012 Censored

ACCORDING TO REUTERS ANARCHADIA HAS THE ABILITY TO SEE INTO THE FUTURE: Nigerians... more

Anarchadiator
added this
5 months ago
|
0 comments

The Truth About Ron Paul

WARNING: Due to the Highly Controversial Nature of this article, it is recommended... more

Anarchadiator
added this
5 months ago
|
4 comments

Nigeria on alert as SHELL announces worst spill in a decade

The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the coast of Nigerian coastal and fishing communities were on Thursday put on alert after Shell admitted to an oil spill that is likely to be the worst in the area for a decade, according to government officials..

An oil spill on the shores of the Niger Delta swamps. Shell has said the recent oil spill is likely to be worst in a decade. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images The company said up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday while it was transferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta.

All production from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day, was last night suspended. "Early indications show that less than 40,000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running," said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.

Satellite pictures obtained by independent monitors Skytruth suggested that the spill was 70km-long and was spread over 923 square kilometers (356 sq miles).

But a leading Nigerian human rights group said Shell's figures about the quantity of oil spilled or the clean-up could not be relied on. "Shell says 40,000 barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them because past incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts and impacts of its carelessness," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, based in Lagos.

"We are alerting fisher folks and coastal communities to be on the look out. It just adds to the list of Shell's environmental atrocities in the Niger delta."

The spill, one of the worst off the coast of Nigeria in 10 years, is particularly embarrassing for Shell, coming only four months after a major UN study said it could take Shell and other oil companies 30 years and $1bn to clean spills in Ogoniland, one small part of the oil-rich delta. The company also admitted responsibility in August for two major spills in the Bodo region of the delta that took place in 2008, but has yet to pay compensation.

Shell, which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, claims that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure. But this is disputed by communities.

Yesterday Shell said it had also closed a Gulf of Mexico deep drilling operation after spilling 319 barrels of contaminated fluids.The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the... more

JanforGore
added this
5 months ago
|
11 comments

Studies document Nigerian children died due to families' gold mining

Large numbers of infants and toddlers have died from lead poisoning in Nigerian villages where their parents process gold ore inside their family compounds, according to a report published Tuesday by an international team of researchers.

In two Nigerian communities, 118 children under the age of 5 died in a single year – 25 percent of the children in that age group. For the first time, the researchers uncovered strong evidence that points to lead as the likely cause for nearly all of those deaths. In addition, all of the surviving children who were tested suffered from lead poisoning, too.

“To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of an outbreak of childhood lead poisoning associated with artisanal gold mining,” the team, directed by lead experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. “Extensive environmental contamination was found in both of the villages and inside individual family compounds.”

Artisanal gold mining is small-scale, subsistence mining that occurs mostly in poor, rural communities. In the Nigerian villages, people use crude, rudimentary processes to extract gold from ore, including grinding and heating the rock. In some cases, flour-grinding machines are used. These activities contaminate the air and soil with large amounts of lead and mercury, both of which cause neurological problems in children.

Scientists found extensive environmental contamination in both of the villages and inside individual family compounds. About 85 percent of soil samples from inside the compounds exceeded safe levels of lead. Sparked by a gold rush, artisanal mining occurs throughout northern Nigeria, as well as elsewhere in Africa and in South America, including Peru. From 13 to 20 million men, women and children from over 50 developing countries are involved in artisanal mining, according to an estimate by a World Bank group.

Word first spread of hundreds of children dying in Nigeria’s Zamfara state in early 2010, when the deaths were discovered during meningitis surveillance by the international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières and Nigerian public health officials. The United Nations has estimated that 400 children died there last year due to lead poisoning.

Calling the outbreak unprecedented, the scientists warned that “characterizing the full extent of the outbreak remains an urgent and ongoing matter.”

Lead poisoning is common worldwide, leading to diseases and IQ reductions, but until now, deaths have rarely been reported.

At the emergency request of Nigerian officials, researchers from the CDC and the World Health Organization visited two villages in Zamfara state where higher-than-expected numbers of children died between May, 2009 and May, 2010. They tested the blood of surviving children, took soil samples from family compounds and questioned parents about their dead children’s symptoms.

Sparked by a gold rush, artisanal gold mining has attracted from 13 to 20 million men, women and children from over 50 developing countries.

All the results were extreme. Eighty-one percent of the children who died had suffered seizures, a sign of acute lead poisoning. Of the surviving children who were tested, “all blood samples indicated lead poisoning,” while 97 percent needed immediate chelation therapy to lower those levels, according to the report. Mercury levels were lower in the children, but still excessive – four to eight times higher than the average U.S. child. And 85 percent of the soil samples taken from the family compounds exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health standard for lead. One water well had 90 times more lead than the EPA’s action level for drinking water.

More at the linkLarge numbers of infants and toddlers have died from lead poisoning in Nigerian... more

JanforGore
added this
5 months ago
|
0 comments

Niger: il Delta dei veleni [libro e video]

Passato inosservato alla maggior parte dei mezzi d'informazione, se ne trova... more

EffettoTerra
added this
6 months ago
|
0 comments

Disease, Violence, Malnutrition, Pollution, Illiteracy - Five Scourges that Cripple the IQ of Sub-Saharan Africa

article seeks to explain the "environmental" factors that hamper Nigeria and... more

googygood
added this
7 months ago
|
0 comments

Shell routinely paid Nigeria's military to suppress resistance to its oil activities

Shell has never denied that its oil operations have polluted large areas of the Niger... more

pdy
added this
8 months ago
|
0 comments

To Our Brothers and Sisters in Nigeria

Please help sponsor this poor American who needs your vast wealth.

Progresshiv
added this
8 months ago
|
26 comments

Step Out In Style (edited/blurred version)

Have a style problem? Never fear, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is here. Make the right... more

BaniProductions
added this
9 months ago
|
1 comment

Time for Family (Final Submission)

No matter the location, the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 offers quality entertainment... more

BaniProductions
added this
10 months ago
|
0 comments

WARRANT OF ARREST PART 1

WARRANT OF ARREST, THEY WANT MY ARREST, FOR WHAT? BECAUSE I FIGHT FOR, EQUAL... more

MASSIVREX_DE
added this
10 months ago
|
0 comments

STOP STRESS IN ME HIP HOP DANCEHALL MYX

STOP STRESS IN ME HIP HOP DANCEHALL MYX HITS 23.199VIEWS ON NAIJA PALS!... more

MASSIVREX_DE
added this
10 months ago
|
0 comments

FIFA criticizes NIGERIA's soccer coach over 'eradicating her lesbians.'

The governing body of football, FIFA, has criticised the coach of the Nigerian... more

LOrion
added this
11 months ago
|
0 comments

Uzi - Shine & Recline Music Video

Just a short video clip of Uzi's recent trip to Nigeria as well as one of his... more

Cheezits
added this
12 months ago
|
0 comments

Iké Udé: Photographic Portraits and Sartorial Anarchy

“Self: Photographic Portraits and Sartorial Anarchy” is a collection of... more

disembedded
added this
12 months ago
|
2 comments

select your country

Community Spotlight

TAGS

tagged w/ Nigeria

top videos

find current on tv

find current online

recent comments

© 2012 Current TV, LLC All Rights Reserved

the basics

follow us online

tools

stay in touch

© 2012 Current TV, LLC
All Rights Reserved