The Niger Delta is a hard place to get your head round. One of the worlds great river deltas, unimaginable in scale with endless green mangrove forests criss-crossed by uncountable brown muddy rivers.
The Delta has serious issues on account of the terrible poverty caused by endemic corruption despite some of the richest oil reserves in the world. With a population of 30million and the 10th biggest oil reserves in the world (mostly accessible sweet crudes) Delta State should be up there with Norway in terms of production per capita. Yet the abject poverty most people live in, despite being able to see the platforms pumping out the oil has led to many terrorist groups and regular tapping of the pipelines and the creation of illegal refineries.
The damage to the environment is staggering and it makes travelling across the Delta almost impossible for anyone not from the local villages, however its hard to argue that the people of the Delta havent got every right to be furious.
