An environmentalist group and four Nigerians filed suit against [Shell] in the Netherlands on Friday, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up oil spills in Nigeria. The civil suit...is unusual in that it seeks to hold Shell's parent company liable for damages allegedly caused by its Nigerian subsidiary...Friends of the Earth spokeswoman Anne van Schaik said...the organization hoped that winning a case in a Dutch court would force Shell to act more quickly to clean spills and compensate victims - or risk a flood of claims in the Netherlands...Shell spokesman Andre Romeyn declined comment...saying the company needed time to study the complaint...Alali Efanga, who traveled...from the village of Oruma to file the suit, said thousands of villagers had been sickened by oil that leaked from a pressurized underground pipeline running through nearby jungle.