Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m to settle a lawsuit which accused the oil firm of complicity in rights abuses in Nigeria. The case, due for trial in the US next week, was brought by relatives of a group of anti-Shell activists executed in 1995 by Nigeria’s military rulers. The families say Shell helped the government to punish the campaigners. But the company insists it did nothing wrong and said the payment was part of a “process of reconciliation”.

Shell official Malcolm Brinded said: “This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered.”

The nigerian dictators captured the activists and hanged them when they protested against shell saying that the company is damaging the environment.