Nigeria was created by Great Britain in one of the most wealthy areas of Africa. It is a collection of different tribes lumped together, the most prominent were the Hausas-Fulani, Yorubas, and Igbos. The primary religion of the Hausas is Muslim and the Igbos are Christian. There was political and religious tension between them. The Hausas were killing the Igbos in the north which caused a migration of Igbo people to the east. The war between Biafra and Nigeria started in 1967 after Biafra seceded from Nigeria. The Biafran army fought for survival against the larger Nigerian army. They didn’t believe surrender was possible because they didn’t think the Nigerian government would let them live.
The Biafran army acquired most of their guns and ammunition from the Nigerian army, so when they got low they had to wait till their supplies built up again before advancing. They lost a lot of territory because they had so little ammunition including the oil fields which all their income originated. During the war, partly due to the oil fields being taken an estimated 1-2 million civilians starved to death and there was only around 100,000 casualties from battle. Media around the world portrayed the malnutrition of millions of people in Biafra helping them gain support from other countries like France who supplied both Nigeria and Biafra with weapons. A few days after Nigerian forces captured the capital of Owerri, Biafra surrendered concluding the three year war. |
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Lieutenant Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was a Nigerian military officer who governed the eastern part of Nigeria. He became the leader of Biafra, taking part in the separation from Nigeria and leading troops against them. After being forced to surrender he was exiled from Nigeria until 1982. He was born in 1933 and died in 2011.
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