Amnesty International on Friday accused international oil majors Shell and Eni of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria.

Describing their actions as “serious negligence,” Amnesty said the companies were “taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, which may result in communities not receiving compensation.”

A Shell spokesman said Amnesty’s allegations “are false, without merit and fail to recognize the complex environment in which the company operates.”

An ENI spokeswoman said the rights group’s statements “are not correct and, in some cases, not acceptable,” adding it had provided a detailed response to Amnesty’s allegations.

Shell and Eni have for decades been two of the most active oil majors operating in the Niger Delta region.

Nigeria’s crude-producing heartland is an ecological disaster zone, scarred by decades of spills that have tainted the water and killed swathes of trees and other plants.

Yet clean-ups, and the associated compensation, are highly contentious, with some local communities even blocking teams’ access to spill sites, allowing the damage to worsen, in the hope of extracting a bigger pay-out.

Under Nigerian law, companies must visit sites within 24 hours of reporting a spill. Amnesty said that in one case Italy’s Eni took more than a year to respond to a spill in Bayelsa state.

While oil companies frequently attribute spills to sabotage and theft, locals say they are often due to other issues such as corrosion.

Shell has reported 1,010 spills since 2011, and Eni 820 since 2014, according to Amnesty, which said among those 1,830 reports it found 89 “about which there are reasonable doubts surrounding the cause provided by the oil companies”.

In 2015, the Bodo community and a British law firm negotiated a 55 million pound pollution settlement with Shell.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises countries on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources, acknowledged there were sometimes difficulties on both sides.

“There’s no good guy here, everybody’s kind of bad. I’m sure the companies don’t do all that they can to get to these places. But then they also have genuine grievances and genuine difficulties dealing with these communities,” said Aaron Sayne, from the institute. “When spills become an opportunity to make money, your clean-up becomes really tough.”

(Source: Reuters)

Cameroon’s ageing president has called his first cabinet meeting since 2015.

Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982, has called his council of ministers to Unity Palace, news agency Reuters said.

However, it is not known what they will be talking about at the closed door meetings.

Reuters suggests little discussion is expected, as Mr Biya, 85, has ruled the central African country with zero tolerance for dissent and has ruled virtually by decree since taking power.

It seems relatively likely the cabinet meeting will at least touch on the Anglophone separatist movement in the west, which has left many dead.

However, the last meeting reportedly focused on “accelerat[ing] preparations for the important sports celebrations”, which were football compettitions the country was due to host in 2016 and 2019.

Mr Biya has met ministers in the intervening years, Reuters said, although these get-togethers often happened at the airport before he went on holiday.

In February, the Organised Crime and Corruption Project released a report which calculated that he had spent some four-and-a-half years outside Cameroon during his tenure as leader.

Culled from the BBC

Several people were killed and cars crushed when a newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday in Miami-Dade County, officials said.

“Several people were killed. I just don’t know how many,” Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said in a telephone interview.

There were at least five to six vehicles crushed underneath the pedestrian crosswalk, he added.

The bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a story that was posted on the university’s website. It was 174 feet (53 m) long and weighed 950 tons.

Television footage showed firefighters were walking across the flattened wreckage and medics were treating injured people. Emergency personnel appeared to be trying to work their way through a hole in the top of the bridge.

(Source : Reuters)

Cameroon’s long-ruling President Paul Biya today convoked a rare cabinet meeting and vowed to push ahead with a military crackdown on English-speaking separatists in the francophone country.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands and the anglophone minority complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

“The efforts (of the security forces) must be continued, especially to ensure a return of normal economic and social activity,” Biya told the first cabinet meeting held since 2015.

On October 1, separatists declared two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”, marking a turning point for the country’s English-speaking minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population.

Biya dispatched troops, combat helicopters and armoured vehicles to root out the dissidents, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

At least 28 soldiers have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP tally, and two state employees have been kidnapped.

The civilian death toll remains unclear, as non-governmental organisations and independent media are barred from the area.

Though the original Ambazonia leaders have dissociated themselves from militant offshoots — they claim their struggle is peaceful — there are a growing number of attacks against the government.

The government early this month created a ministry of decentralisation and development during a cabinet reshuffle. Decentralisation has been one of the key demands of separatist moderates, while more radical.

Biya today said this was a “rapid response to recurring demands” and added that “necessary measures” would be taken to ensure that peaceful and fair elections will be held this year.

The 85-year-old Biya, in power since 1982, has not yet said whether he will stand for re-election, though his party regards him as “the natural candidate”.

Source: www.busines-standard.com

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, on Thursday held his first cabinet meeting since 2015 and on the back of a recent reshuffle. The event took place at the Unity Palace (presidency) in the capital Yaounde.

According to a statement on the website of the presidency, Biya’s address to his appointees centered around security, decentralization, upcoming elections and the hosting of the African Cup of Nations among other issues.

Reuters reports that there was no explanation of why he had called the session and no other officials were permitted to speak about what went on in the conclave.

Portions of Biya’s address focusing on security said the government was winning the fight to secure the country’s Anglophone regions and the Far North – which is riled by incessant attacks from the Boko Haram group.

“Thanks to the firm action of our defence and security forces, we have been able to drastically curb the atrocities perpetrated by criminal groups in the Far North, North-West and South-West Regions.

“Efforts in that regard need to be continued, especially to ensure that economic and social activities return to normalcy,” he added.

The president had told his cabinet that “the best way to serve the country is to do everything, to make all the sacrifices that are needed,” the prime minister said.

“There are a lot of things to do,” Biya had added, singling out the Africa Cup of Nations annual soccer tournament that Cameroon is to host next year, and the presidential election in October this year.

Biya has ruled the Central African nation since taking over from a retired predecessor in 1982 and then winning an election by 99.98 percent a year later.

The meeting came as Cameroon faces a violent separatist movement in its western Anglophone region that a military crackdown has failed to quell. The rest of Cameroon speaks French. In an apparent attempt to smooth it over, Biya appointed two officials from the region to top positions earlier this month.

The economy has been sluggish because of low prices for its main exports oil and cocoa, and falling crude oil production. It was not by helped a shutdown in the economy of its restive Western region, which before the first crackdown in 2016 was becoming an unlikely hub for start-up tech firms.

Cameroon currently ranks 153rd on the U.N. Human Development Index, and average life expectancy is 56.

At the last council in October 2015, shortly after a sweeping reshuffle, Biya was similarly pre-occupied by sport, according to local press reports. He ordered ministers to “accelerate preparations for the important sports celebrations” that Cameroon was to host, namely the men’s African Cup of Nations match next year and women’s one that was held in 2016.

Outside of such meetings, Biya often meets his ministers at the airport between private trips abroad with his wife Chantal, famed locally for her luxurious dresses and bouffant hairdo. Their favourite destination is Switzerland.

Source: Reuters