The Ogoni Nine were a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were executed in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. The executions provoked international condemnation and led to the increasing treatment of Nigeria as a pariah state until General Abacha's mysterious death in 1998. Saro-Wiwa had previously gained noteriety as a critic of the Royal Dutch-Shell oil corporation, and had been imprisoned for a year prior to the executions in November 1995.