Shell oil spills in the Niger delta - in pictures

The wellhead near the village of K-dere, Ogoniland. The crude oil that gushed unchecked from the two Bodo spills which occurred in 2008 has clearly devastated the 20 sq km network of creeks and inlets on which Bodo and as many as 30 other smaller settlements depend for food, water and fuel Photograph: Amnesty International UK

An Amnesty International mission delegate's fingers covered in oil from an oil spill near Ikarama. This photograph was taken eight months after the spill. Experts who studied video footage of the two spills in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska Photograph: Amnesty International UK

The impact of an oil spill near Ikarama. No attempt has been made to clean up the oil which has collected on the creek sides, washes in and out on the tides and has seeped deep into the water table and farmland Photograph: Amnesty International UK

International oil spill assessment experts who have seen the Bodo spill believe that it could cost the company more than $100m to clean up properly and restore the devastated mangrove forests that used to line the creeks and rivers but which have been killed by the oil Photograph: Amnesty International UK

The wellhead near village of K-dere, Ogoniland. Shell has accepted responsibility for the 2008 double rupture of the Bodo-Bonny trans-Niger pipeline that pumps 120,000 barrels of oil a day though Bodo Photograph: Amnesty International UK

According to the communities in Bodo, the company has in two years only offered £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and a few cartons of sugar, tomatoes and groundnut oil. The offers were rejected as 'insulting, provocative and beggarly' by the chiefs of Bodo but later accepted on legal advice Photograph: Amnesty International UK