Nigerian women and girls who are human trafficked into Ivory Coast and are forced to work as prostitutes service between 15 to 30 men a night at a cost of $2 per act.

Source:  AP, “Nigeria teens sold for prostitution in Ivory Coast,” Google News, August 27, 2010.

Shell Petroleum reported that in 2009, 98 percent of oil spills in the Niger Delta was due to vandalism and attempts at oil theft, with 2 percent of spills due to equipment failure.

Source:  Olusola Bello, “Shell worried by increasing oil theft,” Business Daily, June 17, 2010.

Between January 2009 and May 2010, more than 110 expatriates working in Nigeria were kidnapped and held for ransom.

Source:  Associated Press, “US warns of Nigerian kidnappings after 2 deaths,” Google News, May 24, 2010.

According to the WWF, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand are the three top countries in 2009 that were involved in the selling of elephant ivory.

Source: “Worry over ivory trade increase,” WWF, November 17, 2009.

According to Nigeria’s Police Affair Minister, over 500 people were abducted in kidnap and ransom cases in the first 6 months of 2009.

The ransom demands range between $700,000 to $3 Million, although negotiations usually bring down the actual payments.

Source:  Aderogba Obisesean, “Now it’s not just oil workers under threat from Nigeria’s kidnappers,” Telegraph, October 28, 2009.

Kidnappers in Nigeria were able to generate over $100 Million in ransom payments from 2006 to 2008.

Source:  Gilbert de Costa, “Police Implicated in Nigeria Kidnapping,” VOA News, September 24, 2009.

Nigeria loses up to $1.5 billion a year to oil theft and illegal smuggling.

Source:  Benoit Faucon, “Niger Delta’s Oil Theft More Sophisticated,” Dow Jones Newswire, February 27, 2009.

Up to 55 million barrels of oil is lost in Nigeria each year to theft or smuggling.  The illicit activity of stealing oil and selling it on the black market is known as “bunkering”.

Source: AFP, “Organized crime plundering West Africa: UN,” Google News, July 7, 2009.