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Nigeria - Africa’s most populous country - is a major oil exporter and heavily dependent on oil exploration in the Niger Delta. With the oil sector booming, other sectors of the Nigerian economy have suffered and especially agricultural productivity has fallen sharply over the decades.

The devastating effect of oil exploration in the Niger Delta, which threatens the lives and health of the people living in the delta, is the major cause behind the recent eruption of violence: kidnappings for ransom, pipeline vandalism, assaults on oil industry expats…

Poverty is as widespread as before the oil boom and inequality is greater than ever.  When well-armed militants and security forces of the federal government encounter each other, the conflict turns bloody.

The Portuguese journalist Mariana van Zeller examines how terribly fifty years of oil exploration have affected the lives of people living in the Delta area.

You can watch the video here:

http://current.com/items/77541651_rebels-in-the-pipeline.htm

A friend has told me about her being an excellent journalist who is making documentaries on important issues all around the globe.

More brilliant documentaries and insightful reports can be found on Mariana van Zeller’s blog:

http://www.marianavanzeller.com/

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 6:18 PM and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.