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AFRICA
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OIL AND VIOLENCE IN AFRICA Press Release - October 19, 2001 Statement presented during the Africa Upstream meeting held in
Capetown for 17 to 19 October 2001. Press Release: Over the last three days, industry and government have gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss exploration, exploitation and operations of the oil industry in Africa. The oil industry in South Africa, particularly, has a poor environmental track record which has led to several disasters which have had direct impacts in residential areas. These include fuel pipeline leaks, communities being exposed to uncontrolled toxic chemical releases from the petro-chemical industry as well as regular high levels of air pollution. In light of the discussions in Cape Town, groundWork, in solidarity with Oilwatch International and Oilwatch Africa, and local communities in South Africa, wishes to put in perspective the inextricable link between oil companies and human rights and environmental abuses as experienced by people throughout the continent. "Boycott Shell and BP ... when ... TODAY!" For more information: Statement presented during the Africa Upstream meeting No other continent has been ravaged so much intensity, nor experienced so much violence as Africa. This continent has experienced forced migration, hits and slumps by the state, civil wars, AIDS, hunger, drought and flooding. The current threat of war is being felt throughout the world and will also affect the social and economic and social situation of Africa, as the conflict will promote even greater economic and political domination of transnational corporations, particularly, mining and lumber companies. The history of oil and gas exploration, exploitation and transportation activities have been connected with violence, dictatorships, and genocide in the African continent. Nigeria is still struggling to cope with the social impacts of military dictators who seized and looted the country since 1966. Has been living a dictatorship since 1967. Since then a succession of dictatorial governments HAVE allowed transnational oil companies such as Shell, Agip, Chevron, Mobil, Elf, among others, to take over communal lands and exploit for oil in the Niger Delta area, attacking the rights of local populations and causing irreparable damage to the environment. Numerous persons groups who defend human rights in Nigeria have been extra – judicially executed for opposing the government and denouncing the outrages caused by the oil companies. Sadly, this is still the situation in the Delta Today. In Chad, the right to peaceful communal assembly is denied to communities in the oil bearing area soldiers protecting the oil companies terrorize local people, while the government expends oil revenue on arms, while the World Bank which supports oil activity in the country, looks the other way. At the end of the 70s, France sent 3 000 soldiers to support the dominant regimen in the south, and to defend the interests of companies working in uranium and oil, in the south of Chad, against the North, supported by Libya. It is calculated that in the 80s, some 4 000 people were executed or disappeared. In 1969, Libya was in the midst of a socialist revolution headed by
Muammar al Khaddafi. The income from the exploration from the giant oilfields, in the hands of the state, permitted Libya to achieve
the highest capital in Africa, and redistribute it in a relatively fair and
equal way. However, because United States interest in terminating the socialist regime and gain access to the oil fields, they created a
campaign of propaganda, and related the Khaddafi regime with the terrorist world. This generated
armed action in the 80s, including the assassination of Khaddafi's In Sudan, the war for control of oil resources in the south of the country has lasted for more than (18) years, causing the deaths of more than 2 million people WITH 3 million missing. While the repressive regime and their transnational oil company partners count their profits, the long suffering people of Sudan mourn their deaths as oil revenue is used to buy more weapons to prolong the misery of the people. In Angola, a civil war has killed thousands of innocent victims. The political fractions of the country, driven by the control over mining and oil resources, have causes the death and mutilation of more than 1 million people. In Algeria, during the decades when the French lent their support to the "pieds-noirs", 8.000 villages were destroyed and more than a million people were killed. The existence of oil reserves had been proven in the 60s, and the oil and gas began to flow. Civil war has been an ongoing scene right up until the present. Similar cases of oil and gas related strife can be found in countries like Egypt, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Oil has played an ill-fated role in the development of these countries. Besides the environmental impacts that oil activity and related wars provoke, such as contamination and deforestation, these countries are also affected in their economic development, not to mention the social impacts of increased violence. For example, Nigeria, the 6th largest exporter of oil in the world have an impoverished population, suffer from infrastructural decay, violence and instability as politics is about who controls-to-loot oil revenue. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Evidence of environmental impacts has gone past national borders. Cases such as Nigeria are known throughout the world. The destruction of ecosystems, the contamination of water sources, the destruction of forests, is environmental impacts that the populations who live on land with oil have to contend with each day. During each phase of oil activity environmental impacts are provoked. During the seismic exploration there is deforestation and noise pollution. Much of the waste from the detonating is left in the soil. When the seismic explorations are in the sea, fish and other sea life die or are affected by the detonations. With the seismic operations, territories belonging to traditional communities are occupied; foreigners basically invade them. During the drilling exploration, the impacts worsen because of more people in the area. The waste from the drilling is highly contaminated and are exposed to the air or thrown into rivers and other bodies of water. The extraction of oil and gas produces waste that is not used but let
out into the atmosphere in the case of gas, and into water in the case of formation waters. This water is very salty and causes
surrounding vegetation to die. The waste contains cancer-causing components, as well as respiratory problems. With the surrounding CURRENT TENDENCIES For the extraction of crude from the heart of Africa, it has become necessary to construct gigantic oil and gas pipelines. For example, a pipeline from Sudan to their terminal in the Red Sea. Another one has been constructed from Chad to the coast of Cameroon. Other Pipelines will take gas from Nigeria, cross Benin and Togo, to eventually end in Ghana. The oil industry in Africa considers that the majority of territory of the African continent has the potential to be explored for hydrocarbons, without any importance for the tropical forests, its communities and its rich biodiversity. The development in deep water in West Africa (Gulf of Guinea), from Nigeria to the north of Namibia, represents the new expansion for the oil industry. This has been encouraged by various governments and backed by oil and gas companies, guaranteeing the extraction of these resources. Facing these tendencies are the proposals for food and energy sovereignty that many people in Africa are pushing for, in order to assure possibilities of survival in the midst of so much hostility. We ask that the people of Africa come together to collaborate in the struggle for a moratorium on the exploration of gas and oil and to fight for food and energy sovereignty. OILWATCH OILWATCH |
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