Oil exploration company Shell has been ordered to pay a yet to be determined amount as compensation to Nigerian farmers for widespread pollution on their land.
The legal tussle which has lasted thirteen years saw an appeal court in The Hague pass judgment compelling Shell’s Nigerian branch to settle famers affected by oil spillage its exploration activities caused.
It also held the Anglo-Dutch parent company Royal Dutch Shell liable for installing new pipeline equipment to prevent further devastating spills in the Niger Delta region.
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“Shell Nigeria is sentenced to compensate farmers for damages,” the court said.
The amount of damages would be determined later, it said. It did not specify how many of the four farmers would receive compensation.
The plaintiffs consisting of four Nigerian farmers first sued shell in 2008 over pollution in their villages Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo, in southeastern Nigeria, in a case backed by the Netherlands arm of environment group Friends of the Earth.
