Ten years after the infamous execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters in Nigeria, the same frustrations that led to their activism against an abusive military government are fueling a rebel movement against the nation’s new democratic government. The oil industry has brought great damage to the Delta region with oil spills that lead to never-ending gas flares, endangering both the environment and the health of the local people. These damaging effects are not countered by any payoffs from the booming oil industry and seventy percent of the surrounding communities live on less than one U.S. dollar a day. The rebel group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is gaining power and support as the Delta groups have yet to benefit from Nigeria’s annual $45 billion in oil export revenues and see that the government doing little to support their well-being.

The government’s lack of concern for the people of the Delta region is mirrored in its halfhearted attempts to control the growing potential for insurgency. Very little has been done to address the group that has already demonstrated its strength by fighting government forces, sabotaging oil installations, taking foreign oil workers hostage and carrying out two lethal car bombings, according to a recent International Crisis Group report . Reforms have been started that would make it more difficult for rebel groups like MEND to make money from the oil companies, but this must be seen only as the most preliminary of steps if it is to be effective in defeating the rebel movement. Cutting off the insurgency’s resources may damage their ability to effectively target the government militarily, but it will only add to long-term aggression against the government from the people in the Delta region.