Photo op: Activist to hold a ‘baby’ that has simulated crude oil congealed around its mouth highlighting the public health impact of environmental devastation caused by Shell in Nigeria

Location & date: Royal Courts of Justice, Thursday 13 February at 9am

Ogale and Bille communities vs Shell trial starts that day

On Thursday 13 February, Amnesty International UK, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), AFRICA: Seen & Heard and Justice 4 Nigeria are marking the start of the Ogale and Bille communities vs Shell trial with the stunt ‘Ecocide Babe’ by British-Nigerian artist-activist The Crude Madonna outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

In the performance, The Crude Madonna - representing Niger Delta womanhood and resistance - will wear traditional Nigerian dress and gold-painted Shell-shaped medallions saying ‘hell’ and ‘oil’ coated with ‘crude oil’ and hold the Ecocide Babe Alera (which means ‘it is enough’ in the local Khana language) with crude oil congealed around the baby’s mouth.

Created by artists The Crude Madonna and THE DnA FACTORY MRSS, the Ecocide Babe  symbolises the devastating effect of oil pollution on fertility, pregnancy and infant health in the region as well as its overall impact on communities and the environment caused by Shell’s 60 years of oil spills and leaks due to poorly maintained pipelines, wells and inadequate clean-up attempts that have ravaged the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta – most of whom live in poverty.

This is the first stage of the trial that will take place in London throughout 2025. More than 13,500 Ogale and Bille residents in the Niger Delta have filed claims against Shell over the past decade demanding the company clean up oil spills that they say have wrecked their livelihoods and caused widespread devastation to the local environment. They can’t fish anymore because their water sources, including their wells for drinking water, are poisoned and the land is contaminated which has killed plant life, meaning communities can no longer farm.    

Shell plc is domiciled in London and should be legally responsible for the environmental failures of its subsidiary company, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. 

Details of event

Who: Amnesty International UK, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, AFRICA: Seen & Heard and Justice 4 Nigeria

​What: Spokespeople available for comment, and photo opportunity outside court. Supporters will hold a banner and placards saying: ‘Shell: Own up, Clean up, Pay up’.

​Where: Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

​When: Thursday 13 February. Photo opportunity 9:00-10:30am; court proceedings start at 10:30am.