Civil War in Nigeria: what you need to know
Nigerian Civil War, also called Nigerian-Biafran War, war between Nigeria’s federal government and the breakaway state Biafra from 1967 to 1970.
- Date:
- 1967 - 1970
- Location:
- Nigeria
- Participants:
- Biafra
- Key People:
- Yakubu Gowon Odumegwu Ojukwu Christopher Okigbo
After Nigeria became independent in 1960, the new country sought to combine groups divided by ethnicityand religion—a process that led to tensions that culminated in two military coups from which the leaders of the country’s Northern region emerged triumphant.
When the Northern coup resulted in the murder of military and civilian members of the Igbo (Ibo) people in 1967, they declared their homeland, the Eastern region, independent. It was now known as the Republic of Biafra, and Odumegwu Ojukwu was its leader. Despite recognition by some African states and tacit support from such countries as France and Israel, the Nigerian FMG (Federal Military Government) wouldn’t allow the oil-rich east to secede.
In the increasingly vicious war that followed, the FMG, with its superior forces, ruthlessly drove back the Biafran fighters. Appalling hardship ensued for the civilian population of Biafra: massacres were reported as the FMG’s soldiers advanced, and famine took hold after the Nigerian government blockaded Biafra and banned Red Cross aid. As the world sat on its hands and ignored the developing humanitarian disaster, hundreds of thousands died of malnutrition before Biafran resistance was eliminated in 1970. The Republic of Biafra ceased to exist after its officers surrendered in January 1970.
It is estimated that during the Nigerian Civil War more than one million people died in battle, as a result of ethnic cleansing, or because of starvation, with starvation claiming the vast majority of lives.
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