The Court of Appeal in The Hague, Netherlands, has ordered multinational oil firm, Shell Nigeria, to pay compensation for oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
The case was initiated in 2008 by four Nigerian farmers and the Friends of the Earth campaign group, who were seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the Niger Delta region.
The spills concerned were between 2004 and 2007.
Shell argued that saboteurs were responsible for leaks in underground oil pipes that had polluted the region.
But in a ruling on Friday, the Dutch court disagreed with Shell and ruled that the Nigerian arm of the British-Dutch company must issue payouts to the Nigerian farmers.
It held Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary liable for two leaks that spewed oil over an area of a total of about 60 football pitches in two villages, saying that it could not be established “beyond a reasonable doubt” that saboteurs were to blame.
But the Hague appeals court ruled that sabotage was to blame for an oil leak in another village.
It, however, said that the issue of whether Shell can be held liable “remains open” and the case will be continued as the court wants clarification about the extent of the pollution and whether it still has to be cleaned up.
Under Nigerian law, which was applied in the Dutch civil case, the company is not liable if the leaks were the result of sabotage.
“Shell Nigeria is sentenced to compensate farmers for damages,” the court said in its ruling, which can be appealed via the Dutch Supreme Court.
The court also ruled that Shell’s parent company and its Nigerian subsidiary must fit a leak-detection system to a pipeline that caused one of the spills.
According to Al Jazeera, the amount of compensation will be established at a later date. The court did not specify how many of the four farmers would receive compensation.
“Victory at last after 13years of wait! The Dutch court has ordered @Shell to pay farmers in Nigeria for the damages caused by oil spills,” the Nigerian branch of Friends of the Earth tweeted following Friday’s ruling.
Donald Pols, head of the NGO’s Dutch branch, described the court’s decision as “fantastic news for the environment and people living in developing countries.”
“It means people in developing countries can take on the multinationals who do them harm,” he said.
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