I haven't seen much coverage of this.
For 6 days, hundreds of oil workers have been trapped in a Nigerian oil terminal (owned by Chevron Texaco) by hundreds of women from surrounding villages, demanding jobs for their sons and electricity for their homes.
As many as 600 women from villages around the terminal took over the multinational Escravos plant on Monday, saying they want the company to hire their sons and use some of the region's oil riches to develop their remote, rundown communities.Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter -- and the fifth-biggest supplier of U.S. oil imports -- in major part because of the vast reserves of the Niger Delta here. Yet the people in the Niger Delta are among the country's poorest.
Unarmed but unbudging, the women have blocked access to the helipad, airstrip and docks that provide the only exits for the facility, which is surrounded by rivers and swamps.
...
In the terminal airfield, two dozen women danced in the rain alongside four helicopters and a plane, chanting: "This is our land."
