The UK High Court [official website] ruled [judgment, PDF] on Thursday that Nigerian citizens affected by Shell oil spills cannot sue for relief in the UK. Lawyers for the Nigeria residents promised [press release] to appeal the judgment immediately, claiming that the court made its judgment before relevant evidence and testimony could be introduced.

The people of the Niger Delta have been hard hit by numerous oil spills in recent years. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] in November 2015 that Shell had failed to clean up oil spill sites in Nigeria despite its assurances that it properly handled the spills. Shell settled [BBC report] some of the oil spill claims in January 2015 with an $84 million deal. AI also claimed [JURIST report] in November 2014 that Shell had repeatedly misstated and underestimated the impact of two separate oil spills in Nigeria in 2008. Shell claimed that about 4,000 barrels of oil spilled, while AI estimated that closer to 100,000 barrels were spilled in the two incidents.