Author: ssullivan65

Nearly six months after the beginning of the Nigeria-Biafra war, the opposing forces had largely reached a stalemate because neither the Nigerians nor the Biafrans were able to make and sustain significant advances. Despite the fact that by the end of 1967 the Nigerians had surrounded the Biafrans and cut off the majority of their supply lines, the Biafrans continued to resist surrender and kept on fighting. 

Numerous actors in the international community believed that the war would be a quick victory for the Nigerians, so after a prolonged stalemate, some actors began changing their tactics. US President Johnson declared an arms embargo against the FMG of Nigeria, while the French continued to supply arms to Biafra and Great Britain continued to sell arms to the Nigerians. However, as the stalemated war progressed, the famine and humanitarian disaster occurring within Biafra frequently made international headlines, thus leading to an influx of humanitarian organizations within Biafra itself. The war did not end until January 1970.  

see also:

Article: Secessionist Biafra is Surviving Blockade

Book: The Biafran War: The Struggle for Modern Nigeria

Five weeks after Colonel Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra an independent state and—after failed diplomatic attempts to avoid war—the Nigeria-Biafra war began when Nigerian FMG troops attacked Biafra. They did so under the guise of “police action,” or military/security action taken against another territory without a formal declaration of war. The fact that the Nigerians attacked first also allowed the Biafrans to be on the defending side of the war, something that they highlighted and used to their advantage in media coverage of the war. Though the Nigerians made some initial advances into Biafran territory,. 

The initial attacked by the Nigerians included two advancing columns, one of which captured the Biafran town of Nsukka on July 14 and the other which took the Biafran town of Garkem on 12 July. However, the Biafran retaliation was strong and moved rapidly across the Niger River, through Benin City, and to the town of Ore. 130 miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos. where they were eventually stopped on August 21.  

see also:

Article: Forging a Nation while losing a Country: Igbo Nationalism, Ethnicity and Propaganda in the Nigerian Civil War 1968-1970.

 The FMG placed an embargo on Biafra after Ojukwu declared the country an independent republic. However, this initial embargo did not include oil, only the shipping of other goods to and from Biafra. After the first embargo, Biafra began collecting oil royalties from companies operating within the country, and after Shell-BP agreed, the FMG then completed the embargo to include oil as well. 

While the initial blockade, including the supplement inclusion of oil, was not extremely detrimental to Biafra at the time, it eventually led the starvation and death of thousands of people. Though estimates vary significantly, many people approximate that between 500,000 and two million people died due to starvation. 

The ICRC’s role in Biafra was controversial, because it maintained its policy of not commenting on the war itself, and it did not run the blockade instituted by the FMG. Other organizations, just as Joint Church Aid, did defy the Nigerian government. Still, starting in 1968, the ICRC launched what was then its largest-ever delivery of food and medical aid.

see also:

Video: ICRC video on its Biafran relief work.

Article: Biafra: 1967-70: Ethical Dilemmas of Humanitarian Relief.

Ojukwu officially declared Biafra an independent state on May 30, 1967, four days after an official vote of secession had taken place in the region. In his address of independence, Ojukwu cited the numerous killings of Easterners that had taken place since the coups the previous year as one of the main reasons for secession. Secession only came after the failure of the federal and eastern governments to reconcile at a meeting of regional leaders in Aburi, Ghana during the early months of 1967.

see also:

Article: Biafra’s Declaration of Independence, 1967

A series of anti-Igbo pogroms took place in northern Nigeria from May to September 1966 largely as a reaction to the Igbo coup d’état that occurred the previous January in which many northern military officers were killed. Though killings took place throughout the period of May to September 1966, they peaked on three days: May 29, July 29, and September 29. Once the pogroms had ended, there were very few easterners left in the north because most were either dead, had fled to the eastern region, or were hiding with sympathetic northerners. Based on one estimate, some 3,000-30,000 Igbo were killed during this period, and another 150,000-300,000 fled to southern and eastern regions. However, as a result of these killings, many northerners who had been living in the eastern region were also targeted and killed. 

There is not uniform agreement among scholars as to which term most accurately describes the killings of the Igbo. Some call it a “holocaust,” while others loosely describe this period as being comprised of “pogroms, riots, or genocide.”

see also:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fyu6-9o1mU

A few months after the first coup, soldiers from the north staged a counter-coup with the goal of removing Igbo from positions of military leadership and influence. Ironsi and many other high-ranking Igbo officers were killed, and Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon was installed as head of state. 

According to Nigerian historian Max Siollun, the northern soldiers who led the counter coup had a list of grievances that they understood to be legitimate reasons for executing the second coup. Some include: the murder of northern officers and civilians during the January coup; the fact that the conspirators of the January coup had not been tried for treason; the promotion of Igbos within the military; and, rumors of Ironsi’s favoritism toward Igbos. 

After Ironsi was killed in the counter coup, Yakubu Gowon became the “compromise” new head of state because he was a westerner born in the north and was uninvolved in the coup activities. Gowon remained the leader of the Federal Military Government through the Biafran war and up until 1975 when he was ousted from power via another military coup. 

see also:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMBvaFpLRo

Book: http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/70.htm

Though the British established a presence around Lagos, Nigeria during the 1850s, the country was officially a British colony from 1914-1960. During colonial rule, the English influenced Nigeria in myriad ways, including the advent of Western style education, Christianity, and the English language. The Nigerian economy also became heavily dependent upon the export of cash crops during the time of colonial rule.

In 1960, newly independent Nigeria established a parliamentary system of government that consisted of a ceremonial head of state and an elected prime minister. Each of the three main regions also retained a large amount of self-governance power. However, despite a somewhat brief period of peace following independence, Nigeria then descended into a more problematic state due to ethnic competition, regional imbalance, inequalities in educational opportunities, and economic disparities. In an effort to avoid ethnic conflict, the government created a new region, the Mid-West, by splitting the existing Western region. Nonetheless, the country was still regionally divided based predominantly on ethnicity: the Hausa-Fulani controlled the north, the Yoruba controlled the west, and the Igbo controlled the east.

Additional Media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMC34KhZCf8 http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1960/10/13/report-on-nigerian-independence-plagos-nigeria/