The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has launched an assessment of the impact of contamination from oil across the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, which has been plagued by unrest and ecological damage.

The $9.5 million assessment, which will be jointly carried out by UNEP and the governor of Rivers State, following a request from the Nigerian government, is expected to last for a year.

The findings will be used to make recommendations on how to rehabilitate the land so that it meets international standards of environment acceptability.

According to a press statement issued to correspondents in New York by UNEP, oil exploration and production had been conducted in the Niger Delta since the 1950s, adding that many of the operations have been suspended since the early 1990s because of local unrest, the oil fields and installations of Ogoniland have been dormant.

During that period, partial efforts were made to remedy the contamination from oil production and further spills as a result of lack of maintenance, oil tapping and damage to infrastructure which occurred in the past 15 years.

Meanwhile, the UN has appealed for more than $7.1 billion next year to assist 48 million people across 25 countries whose lives have been wrecked by conflict and natural disasters, with the largest amount of over $1 billion being sought for Sudan. "Our aim is to help people survive the coming year and start working their way towards dignity, safety and self-sufficiency to which every human being has a right."

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said in the foreword to the 2010 Consolidated Humanitarian Appeal launched  in Geneva by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, that the appeal covers 12 of the world's most severe and prolonged crisis: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, West Africa, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

The 2010 appeal is the biggest appeal launched since the creation of the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) in 1991. Last year, the appeal sought $7 billion, which was then a record.

Mr. Holmes said humanitarian aid should be insulated from the current budget pressures faced by many governments, adding that  the people affected by  natural disasters and conflicts will pay the price of recession if proper care is not taken.