In January, after years of pressure from Amnesty International and its supporters, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary announced a £55m settlement to 15,600 farmers and fishermen in Bodo, Nigeria, whose lives were devastated by two large Shell oil spills in 2008 and 2009.
Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu commuted the death sentences of 332 inmates, all held at the Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison in Kabwe, to life imprisonment, in July.
In May, Moses Akatugba, a Nigerian death-row inmate, was pardoned after nearly 10 years in jail. He had been tortured to confess to a crime he says he never committed. More than 800,000 Amnesty activists had sent letters demanding justice.
The Court of Appeal in Sudan overturned the conviction of Ferdous Al Toum, a teenager who had been found guilty of “indecent or immoral dress” and sentenced to 20 lashes and a fine of 500 Sudanese pounds. This is believed to be due in part to activism and international pressure.
