Making Peace, Building Development
Community, Conflict, and Governance in the Oil-Producing Communities of the Niger Delta, Nigeria
A Program of Research and Training
The Niger Delta of Nigeria is home to some of the largest and highest quality oil deposits on the planet. Petroleum pumped from the Delta has been the lifeblood of the Nigerian economy for four decades. Yet the oil-producing communities across the region have been drawn into political struggles and conflicts over "resource control", "self-determination", and the deployment of the vast oil wealth from which they have benefited little. It is no exaggeration to say that the violence and instabilities within the Niger Delta strike to the very heart of Nigeria's political future.
The central question addressed by this project is why are oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta the site of intense conflict and what can be done to improve the lot of such communities?
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- See the Working Papers published by this program
- See a video, "Stained with Blood and Oil: The Niger Delta" by Ed Kashi
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This project is sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, DC), Our Niger Delta (Port Harcourt, Nigeria), and the Institute of International Studies (University of California, Berkeley).
Niger Delta: Economies of Violence Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
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