In January, Shell, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, announced plans to sell its Nigerian onshore oil business to a group called Renaissance. This group includes four local Nigerian companies and a foreign energy firm. The deal is worth a whopping $2.4 billion. However, this sale has sparked a major outcry from local communities in the Niger Delta, a region in southern Nigeria that has long been affected by oil pollution.

Over 1,200 communities from the Ilaje region, part...