--- title: "The Nigerian Civil War: Nigeria's Deadly War of Ethnicities" description: "It would be an understatement to say that in the second half of the 20th century the world was full of civil wars. From Greece to Korea to the Congo, nearly every corner of the world saw some form of clash with a military coup d'etat or a civil uprising, and the various governments attempting to violently quell it. And, of course, the Cold War superpowers at the time saw these as perfect opportunities to flex on each other by supporting the side that aligned with their political agenda, often turning the conflicts into proxy wars. Normally, this was pretty straightforward, with a typical war seeing the Soviet Union send weapons and support to whatever local Marxist revolution was occurring, and the United States supporting anyone and everything that opposed communism. However, in the case of the Nigerian Civil War, the sides of the conflict would be anything but straightforward. Also known as the Biafra War, this one would turn out to be the center of one of the most convoluted international responses of all time, with the United States and the Soviet Union unbelievably supporting the same side, while countries like France and China were doing everything they could to help the opposite movement. The brutal fighting and ethnic violence that followed, and the grim possibility of a continuation erupting in the near future, make this conflict one of the most important and tragic in modern African history.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n- The United States and Soviet Union both supported the Nigerian federal government while France and China backed Biafra, creating one of the Cold War's most unusual alliance configurations.\n- An estimated 2 million Biafrans, half of them children, died of starvation due to Nigeria's blockade during the two-and-a-half-year war from 1967 to 1970.\n- Gowon's division of Nigeria into twelve states in May 1967 deliberately separated the Igbo people from the oil-rich Niger Delta territories, triggering Ojukwu's declaration of Biafran independence.\n- The Soviet Union supplied MiG-17 fighter jets and 200 technicians to Nigeria, with Egyptian and later East German pilots flying combat missions because Nigerian pilots lacked sufficient training.\n- The French Red Cross presence in Biafra during the war directly led to the founding of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières).\n\n## Post-Colonial Chaos: 300 Ethnic Groups in One Nation\n\nOn October 1st, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom, joining a long list of countries to do so in the last couple hundred years. Officially, the country was called the Federation of Nigeria, and though it was now governed by an elected Prime Minister, the Queen of England was still technically the monarch. With their independence secured, the Federation of Nigeria was now Africa's most populous country, with a population of over 45 million at the time. But the ethnic makeup of this 45 million is where the real complexity of the country lies — within the borders drawn up rather arbitrarily by their old colonial power, there were over 300 different cultural or ethnic groups, all now lumped without regard into a single country. Politics were definitely going to be messy, but it was even worse when considering just how different the three largest ethnic groups were. In the north of the country lived the largest ethnic group, the Hausa-Fulani. This region was dominated by Islam, and so the social and political hierarchy was controlled by local emirs who in turn obeyed the rule of the Sultan. The Sultan was the highest authority in political, religious, and economic matters, and the Hausa-Fulani were accustomed to such an absolute rule. The Hausa-Fulani, and other groups from the north, also made up the vast majority of Nigeria's military because there was a stereotype that they were stronger and tougher than the other ethnic groups. In the southwest lived the Yoruba, who had a similar system of monarchs, but here they had far less political power. Along with just having less overall authority, these monarchs, called Oba, were generally people who had earned their wealth and respect of their community, in contrast to the Hausa-Fulani up north, whose leaders generally inherited their status. The Yoruba were also seen as the wealthiest group, and they dominated Nigeria's capital at the time, Lagos. In the southeast of the country, in a place known as the Niger Delta, lived the Igbo, who had a very different approach compared to the other two groups. The Igbo had monarchs as well, but their position was mostly symbolic and they didn't hold much power. Instead, matters were voted on democratically by both men and women, and most cities or villages were relatively autonomous and voted their own laws. One more important detail — the southeast where the Igbo lived was home to Nigeria's massive oil reserves. This is an oversimplified explanation, and there were hundreds more ethnicities sprinkled throughout these areas, but these three main groups made up about 70% of their respective regions. Their differences are even further highlighted when factoring in religion, because Western missionaries had converted a huge portion of the South to Christianity, but they hadn't seen very much success in the Muslim North. This was the incredibly diverse mess that was now suddenly all wrapped up into a single, independent nation and needed to vote on matters that affected everyone.\n\n## Labor Strikes, Rigged Elections, and the Massacre of 30,000 Igbos\n\nIn the first two years, things seemed to be off to an okay start, but just as Nigeria began to stand up on its own legs, they began to wobble like those of a newborn goat. Starting just a couple years into independence, workers began to protest their low wages and poor living conditions, especially in Lagos, where the contrast with the lavish lifestyles of the wealthy was glaringly obvious. People worked long, grueling hours for low pay only to come home to overcrowded, often dangerous housing, and they weren't going to put up with it any longer. Even outside of Lagos, new protests and riots were popping up every day, with people from almost every ethnicity joining in. This eventually led to a historic, nation-wide labor strike in June 1964, during which riot police had to be deployed to disperse the crowds in several cities. In the end, the workers got what they wanted most — wage increases, but the government's resistance to reflect the will of the people solidified many citizens' beliefs that the politicians in charge were horribly corrupt. In 1963, there was a brief chance for some change when Nigeria switched up their government a bit when they established a federal republic and set up a new parliament, but in reality not much changed and corruption remained rampant. The distrust and hatred for corrupt politicians was so strong that when candidates for the 1964 elections were touring Nigeria they were routinely attacked, and sometimes the violence was so extreme that the Army was deployed to put a stop to it. The worst of this was in a central state inhabited by the Tiv people, where clashes with the Army were so intense that thousands of civilians were killed or arrested in deadly street battles. Eventually, though, the 1964 elections did take place, and resulted in a landslide victory for the Northern People's Congress, a political party with near unanimous support from the Hausa-Fulani in the north. With this victory, the previous Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was reelected. But a huge portion of the country saw this as yet another corrupt game. Violence started breaking out all over the country, and as more and more people began fleeing across the country back to their ethnic homelands, Nigeria's cultural division was as tense as it had ever been. In the north, especially, Igbos were targeted, leading to as many as 30,000 of them being massacred, half of which were children. This was done openly, with vast public support, and no attempts were even made to hide the killings. Anthropologist Charles Kiel was present in Nigeria when this happened, and he later recalled that when he saw the corpses in the street, soldiers merely apologized for the stench and escorted him away, reassuring him that they were doing the world a favor by getting rid of the Igbo. Because of this, Igbos, and other minorities at risk, fled in droves to other regions of the country. But things weren't so safe there either, as the people in these other regions were continuing to riot, this time accusing the reelected prime minister of rigging the election and gaining votes through fraud and his army's intimidation. This, of course, was only possible because the majority of the men in the army were northerners and had already proven they wouldn't hesitate to resort to violence.\n\n## Two Coups, Two Dead Leaders, and the Aburi Accord's Collapse\n\nIn January, 1966, a handful of army majors had gathered support from some soldiers and launched a military coup d'etat, in which they were successful in capturing nearly every important political figure in the north. The prime minister was executed, along with several other northern politicians, but the president conveniently happened to be on vacation at the time, and because he was an Igbo from the south, many believe he had actually been tipped off about the coup ahead of time to save his life. So the coup succeeded in the north, but in the rest of the country their attempts to overthrow the government were halted. The head of the Nigerian Army, Johnson Aguyi-Ironsi, was able to crush the revolution in the south and west, and was later able to capture the majors who initiated the coup. And with the government now in shambles, Ironsi declared himself head of state of Nigeria, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the remainder of parliament, vowing to restore order to the country. However, Ironsi had failed in one crucial part of suppressing the revolution, which was to hunt down and arrest the remaining dissenters within his army's ranks. The main leaders of the failed coup d'etat had been captured, but every man who had supported them was still an active member of the army. Failing to weed out these insurgents would soon turn out to be a fatal mistake. On a trip to Ibadan, the third largest city in Nigeria, the new head of state, Ironsi, was visiting military barracks when the army there suddenly mutinied and initiated a second coup d'etat. During this counter-coup, Ironsi was captured and executed, and, once again, a new leader of Nigeria was chosen — this time, it was Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon. Gowon did his best to put an end to the violence, and recorded several broadcasts urging the north to stop the mass killings, but to no avail. He also tried to meet with the four regional leaders of Nigeria's Supreme Military Council, from the North, East, West, and Midwest, but this was easier said than done. Gowon hoped to unite the four governors and find a way to end the country's crisis, but the general in charge of the eastern region, Ojukwu, refused to meet with the others because he feared for his life in the other states of Nigeria. Eventually, the parties were all able to meet abroad in Ghana, and after long discussions and negotiations, everyone agreed on one main point: Nigeria needed to return to a federation of semi-independent states. This would hopefully allow each region to handle its own local economy, laws, and other matters, while the Nigerian military government would only handle matters that would affect the country as a whole. At the end of the meeting, Gowon and the representatives from each region signed the Aburi Accord, which detailed how this new federation would be implemented, and everyone left the meeting with a sense of optimism. So it seemed for a moment that there was light shining through the clouds, and perhaps the violence and ethnic tension would be put to rest — but these hopes were dashed as soon as the leaders returned to Nigeria, when Gowon released a televised broadcast announcing that he had changed his mind concerning the Aburi Agreement, and would be drawing up Nigeria's new state lines as he saw fit.\n\n## Secession, Embargo, and the Birth of the Republic of Biafra\n\nOn the 27th of May 1967, Gowon officially divided Nigeria into twelve states, and, in doing so, sliced up Ojukwu's eastern region into 3 separate parts: the South Eastern State, the Rivers State, and the East Central State. This had been done in such a crafty way that the majority of the Igbo people were now located in the East Central State, while Nigeria's oil reserves were located in the other two states, effectively cutting them off from all possible revenue. Just three days later, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's new borders by announcing the independence and secession of his region, which was now officially called the Republic of Biafra. This was unacceptable to the Federal Military Government — not only because a portion of the country was attempting to secede, but also because they were taking with them the aforementioned oil reserves, and Biafra had already announced a new royalty tax on exports. Gowon responded by issuing a national decree that essentially gave him absolute power over any regional government, but the situation was already spiraling out of control and Biafra refused to acknowledge his authority. Ojukwu was well aware of the dangerous game he was playing, and after the secession he calmly said, \"If civil war comes, and I do think it's imminent ... it will for us be the price of freedom.\" While the government decided on their next move, they placed a complete embargo on Biafra, with the crucial exception of oil exports, as they begrudgingly still relied on them, but later they expanded the blockade to include oil when they learned that the British oil companies Shell and BP had agreed to pay the royalties to Biafra. Shell and BP were vital partners of Nigeria's economy, and along with a couple other British firms, they made up nearly half of Nigeria's total foreign trade, exporting more than 500,000 barrels of oil every day. Losing these partnerships would cripple Nigeria's economy, and so the Federal Military government knew they had to act quickly before they lost Biafra, and their oil, forever.\n\n## Operation Unicord and the Biafran Midwest Gambit\n\nThe war began on July 6th, 1967, as mortar shells began striking the city of Ogoja, a city situated very close to the northern border between Biafra and Nigeria. Gowon announced that this operation was technically a \"police action\", though it was in fact the army carrying out the assault. The goal was clear: retake Biafra through any means necessary, and eliminate anyone who opposed the reintegration. But Nigeria's army in 1967 wasn't exactly prepared for serious combat. Despite fighting alongside the Allies as a British colony in World War 2, their current military was woefully untrained. Most of their officers had been foreigners that had long since left, and many others had been executed in army purges. They were more of a glorified, heavily armed police force and lacked any experience carrying out complex military operations. But their opponent was even less prepared for the conflict, despite Ojukwu's confident remarks about freedom. At the onset of the war, both sides only had a few thousand men ready to fight, and not nearly enough modern firearms to go around. The Nigerian offensive, codenamed Operation Unicord, successfully pushed through the northern border and captured several Biafran cities within the first month of fighting. Led by Colonel Muhammed Shuwa, the Nigerian Army was ruthless in its advances, hoping to move quickly and capture Biafra's capital, Enugu. At the same time, a Nigerian marine commando division landed in a surprise attack on Biafra's southern coast, hoping to capture the oil lines and cut off the independent region from outside supply lines. This is when the Biafrans started cashing in some luck: first, a scout team was able to kill one of Nigeria's high-ranking majors during a nighttime surprise attack in the north, and secondly, Ojukwu had come up with a clever plan to distract his enemies. This was codenamed Operation Torch, and it was intended to take advantage of the neutrality of the Midwest state next door. When the war had broken out, the Midwest had declared their neutrality, and the federal government approved this, expecting a quick end to the Biafran resistance and not expecting to need a full mobilization involving the whole country. Because of this, the federal forces were advancing only from the north and the south, leaving the west wide open. Meeting almost no resistance, Biafran forces charged into the Midwest, capturing city after city, until finally reaching the state's capital — which fell in just hours. Within just a few days, a huge portion of the Midwest state had fallen to Biafran forces, and the federal army now had to divert their attention away from Biafra to defend the new front, just as Ojukwu had hoped. After regrouping for a few days, the Biafrans continued their march through the Midwest, this time aiming for Nigeria's biggest city: Lagos. But they were now too far from home to help when riots against Biafran independence started breaking out. A few ethnicities within Biafra had sided with the government, and began violently protesting and raiding government buildings. At one point, they attacked a small Biafran army camp, where they killed 50 soldiers and stole all of their weapons. In response, the Biafran soldiers marching through the Midwest raided small villages of the ethnicities responsible, committing severe atrocities against civilians.\n\n## The Fall of Enugu and the Republic of Benin\n\nBy mid-September, the entire Midwest was under Biafran control, and Ojukwu declared its new name the Republic of Benin, a part of Biafra. When this news reached Gowon, he removed the label of \"police action\" from the conflict, and declared all-out war on Biafra. Just a day later, Nigerian divisions began attacking the western border of the newly named republic, forcing the Biafrans to retreat from the territory they'd just captured. At the same time, the commando division that had landed in the south was redirected to the west, and was able to push the Biafrans back with heavy mortar attacks and quick, decisive strikes. After just a couple days, the entire Midwest state had been retaken by the government, who was now marching to Biafra's capital, Enugu. Federal jets began bombing the capital, and Ojukwu had to plead with his army to not abandon the city, but the aerial bombings were just too intense, and after a few days people began evacuating from the capital. In October, the federal forces reached the capital, and bombed it with heavy artillery before marching in. They surrounded Ojukwu's house, but he was able to miraculously escape by disguising himself as a servant and fleeing, saving his life, but abandoning the capital of his republic. Enugu had fallen, and the federal government was certain this demoralizing defeat would mean the end of the Biafran secession. But they were wrong. The quick end of the war that Gowon had hoped for slipped through his fingers with Ojukwu's escape. After fleeing south, he quickly set up a new headquarters and a reformed Biafran government, determined to hold out against the federal army. Ethnic hatred was running so high that the federal army began raiding villages and accusing them of being Biafran supporters simply based on their ethnicity, often beating or killing anyone found guilty. The worst of these raids was in the village of Asaba, where dozens of men, women, and children were beaten or executed as a result of the accusations. After a day or so of being terrorized by the army, the remaining citizens gathered at the main street, dressed in traditional clothing, and began chanting phrases in support of the federal government, such as \"One Nigeria\", the slogan of the current ruling party. The army simply stood by and watched until they received, and obeyed, the heartless order to open fire. When the booming of machine guns had finished, well over a thousand innocent people had lost their lives, mostly men and boys, who had been separated from the women before the shooting started.\n\n## Frontline Battles: Onitsha, Calabar, and Guerrilla Resistance\n\nThroughout the next few months, battles raged all along the frontline between the two forces. At the city Onitsha, federal forces made a daring charge as they crossed the River Niger in small boats, only to be repelled when Biafran reinforcements arrived, and any attempts to cross the river again for a follow-up attack were unsuccessful. At the southern coastal city Calabar, the army was able to crush the Biafran resistance thanks to aerial and naval firepower, but instead of a full retreat, the Biafran forces fled to the outskirts of the city and began fighting a guerrilla war against the attackers. Ojukwu responded to their desperate pleas for help by dispatching a unit of foreign mercenaries, led by an experienced French paratrooper, but these men were also forced to retreat in the face of heavy mortar fire and air superiority, and Calabar soon fell to the government forces. By 1968, even after a battle where they suffered their highest casualties yet, the government forces had captured most of Biafra's coastline, northern, and western borders, and were preparing to slowly encircle and squeeze out the seceding territory like a boa constrictor. The stage was now set for the intervention of foreign powers, as the international community could no longer ignore the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding inside the blockaded territory.\n\n## A Convoluted Web of Foreign Aid and Cold War Alliances\n\nThe international community was well aware of what was happening in Nigeria at the time, and they were pretty split on how to respond. Most countries started off with a hands-off approach, sympathizing with the Biafran motive but not really doing much else, and definitely not officially recognizing the region as a new nation. But things started to change in 1968 when footage of the war began reaching televisions all around the world, and the images were nothing short of haunting. Nigeria's blockade of Biafra had resulted in a mass food shortage, and severe hunger was widespread. Biafra claimed that Nigeria was committing genocide by starvation, and the chilling photos of thousands of malnourished children brought much of the world to support this claim. Families watching from home in the United States were outraged, and movements to send food to Biafra began to gather serious support. But the US government itself maintained its official stance of neutrality, as they claimed that it was Britain's post-colonial area of influence and they wouldn't interfere. This neutrality, though, is usually seen as supporting the Nigerian side, because the State Department had hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets in Lagos, and didn't want it to fall into the hands of the Biafrans. The Soviet Union was a huge supporter of Nigeria's side, largely because the USSR was very anti-secessionist — after all, they didn't want any of their own fifteen Soviet socialist republics to get any ideas. The Soviet Union sold weapons, ammunition, and even a squadron of MiG-17 fighter jets, along with 200 Soviet technicians to keep them in shape. However, it turned out that the Nigerian pilots weren't trained well enough on modern aircraft, so Egypt allowed its Air Force pilots to join the war and fly for Nigeria. These pilots were eventually replaced with some from East Germany because they were better trained for the fighter jet and much more accurate with their bombing runs. The USSR's support of the Nigerian government also reflected their positions in other African conflicts, such as in the Congo, where similar movements had sprung up. Britain also sided with the Nigerian government. This was mostly due to the fact that Nigeria sold a significant amount of oil to them, but also because they saw Nigerian victory as the best way to restabilize the region. Britain sent weapons, ammunition, intelligence, and even helped hire foreign mercenaries for Nigeria. Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, and Syria were also notable supporters of the Nigerian government. Israel was also on this side, but, funny enough, only for the first half of the war. Starting in 1968, their growing distrust of the Nigerian government and its strong Muslim backbone, as well as their sympathy for the victims of the genocide in Biafra, prompted them to switch alliances and begin funding the secessionist state. They sent hundreds of tons of food and weapons, and even a transport plane. Now, onto Biafra's side — the biggest supporter, by far, was France. France gave aircraft, weapons, and even armored vehicles to the Biafran military, helped them hire foreign mercenaries, and sent them huge shipments of captured Axis weapons from World War II. They also promoted their cause in the international scene, becoming their loudest supporter and urging the world to recognize the genocide that was taking place. Biafra also promised them a lot of oil. The support was so strong that Ojukwu even suggested that Biafra have mandatory French lessons in school. Along with France, Portugal, Spain, and West Germany sent weapons, along with a host of assorted African nations and, interestingly, Czechoslovakia, who did all they could for Biafra until they had to withdraw their support and focus on their own needs when the Soviet Union knocked on their door during the Warsaw Pact invasions. The last big supporter of Biafra was none other than China, mostly out of spite in their rivalry with the Soviet Union since the communist friendship between the two had soured in recent years. If the Soviets were supporting something, they were against it, and so they smuggled weapons into Biafra through Tanzania, sending well over 2 million dollars' worth of arms.\n\n## Mercenaries, the Red Cross, and the Birth of Doctors Without Borders\n\nBiafra was also stuffed to the brim with foreign mercenaries, many of whom developed serious emotional motivation to help the Biafran cause. Among these men was a Polish pilot, former German and Scottish soldiers, and even a Belgian mercenary who reportedly drew his motivation from his intense hatred for the British government. Aside from the military support, nearly every country was sympathetic to the starvation of Biafra, but many struggled to find ways to help. The French Red Cross was very prominent in the region, but even they were subject to brutal attacks at times. Despite the danger, they remained in the warzone, and eventually founded the group that would go on to become Doctors Without Borders, as they were desperate to see the creation of a group that would provide help regardless of nationality, religion, or conflict. The Catholic Church and other Christian organizations had various foundations that shipped food through neighboring countries, especially once it was learned that the Biafrans were largely Christian, and various Non-Governmental Organizations began popping up to provide relief. It was still incredibly difficult to get the food to Biafra though, and volunteers would often risk their lives to fly their own planes over the region and drop sacks of food and medicine. But it still wasn't enough to curb the region's hunger, and thousands were dying of malnutrition as the weeks wore on. So this is where the two sides stood in mid-1968. Both heavily armed by various foreign powers, fighting a slow, bloody war for what they believed was right for their country. Biafra was surrounded, but they refused to surrender, determined to fight to the last man.\n\n## The Final Offensive: Port Harcourt, Operation Tail-Wind, and Biafra's Surrender\n\nIn late 1968, the Nigerian army began what it called \"The Final Offensive\", certain that with a final, decisive push they could put an end to this insurgency once and for all. The first main objective of this operation was Port Harcourt, a sprawling riverside city that was Biafra's only remaining access to the sea. First, the Nigerian army pushed on to the city Afam, knocking out a power station that brought electricity to much of Biafra, plunging the region into blackouts. As they continued pushing the frontline northward, heading for Port Harcourt, a broadcast was heard on every radio, as Ojukwu rallied the Biafrans to defend the port: \"Gowon wants Port Harcourt. He wants our own wealth by all means and at all costs, but he cannot get it. Port Harcourt signifies our freedom.\" But ultimately, the Biafrans were no match for the superior firepower that had been placed in the hands of the Nigerian army. Blankets of mortar fire rained down on the army barracks and airport, and bombing runs shook the city night and day. After 5 days of heavy combat, despite resisting with all their might, the Biafrans were forced out of the city, and Port Harcourt had fallen. This was a demoralizing loss, and many Biafrans were losing hope that a victory would ever be possible. The Nigerians ruthlessly continued inland throughout 1969, capturing city after city and shaking off Biafran counterattacks. Eventually, Biafra was only a fraction of its former size, and a clever Nigerian attack split the remaining land in half. Finally, in early 1970, the Nigerians initiated Operation Tail-Wind, attacking the north and south halves of remaining Biafra territory simultaneously, and successfully captured all remaining cities. Ojukwu was forced to flee, ending up in exile in the Ivory Coast, and Biafra officially surrendered two days later.\n\n## Two Million Dead and the Lasting Scars of Starvation and Dispossession\n\nNigeria was finally reunited, but at what cost? Deaths from combat were quite high, with as many as 100,000 men being killed during the two and a half years of fighting, but the civilian numbers were simply jaw-dropping. An estimated 2 million Biafrans died of starvation during the blockade — half of which were children. Those who managed to survive were subject to permanent damage from the months of severe malnutrition, including reduced height and strength, fertility issues, as well as extreme poverty that plagued the post-war region for years. The poverty was made worse by the fact that Nigeria changed its currency near the end of the war, so any reserves of old currency held by Biafrans was useless once the country was reunited. For decades, the Igbo people and others in the region accused the government of failing to provide funds to reconstruct the destroyed region, and further political and ethnic tensions remained over who would control the lucrative oil fields and exports. Igbo people routinely had their houses stolen from them by wealthier families following the conflict, with the government refusing to help, leaving many once-stable families homeless, alongside hundreds of thousands of refugees that had fled during the massacres preceding the war.\n\n## The Indigenous People of Biafra and the Specter of a Second War\n\nThese tensions ebbed and flowed for decades, but they have taken a new turn. In 2012, a new separatist movement was announced: the Indigenous People of Biafra, a determined political group vowing to restore Biafra's independence. In 2021, a paramilitary wing of this new group raided a farm, killing the livestock and razing the fields as a punishment for disobeying orders. The Nigerian Army was deployed, and the fighting between the two left over a hundred dead. There are active separatists in almost every region of what was once Biafra, and their violent clashes with both security forces and civilians of targeted ethnicities are becoming more and more commonplace. The future of the region is unstable, to say the least. It is unclear whether or not full-scale conflict will erupt once again, but the possibility is not off the table, especially with the separatists having already announced that the Second Biafran war has begun, with the claim that this time around, Biafra will win. The Nigerian Civil War remains a stark reminder of how colonial border-drawing, ethnic rivalry, oil politics, and Cold War maneuvering can combine to devastating effect. The unresolved grievances that fueled the original conflict — ethnic marginalization, economic dispossession, and political corruption — continue to simmer beneath the surface of Nigerian society, making the lessons of 1967–1970 as relevant as ever.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What sparked the secession of Biafra and the start of the war?\n\nOn May 27, 1967, Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon divided Nigeria into twelve states in a way that placed the Igbo people in the East Central State while moving the oil-rich Niger Delta into separate states, effectively cutting the Igbo off from Nigeria's oil revenues. Three days later, Eastern Region leader Ojukwu declared independence for the Republic of Biafra. The federal government rejected the secession, imposed an embargo, and launched military operations in July 1967.\n\n### Why did the United States and Soviet Union end up on the same side?\n\nThe US maintained unofficial support for the Nigerian federal government primarily because it held hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in Lagos and did not want those assets to fall under Biafran control. The Soviet Union backed the federal government because it was strongly anti-secessionist—it did not want any of its own fifteen Soviet socialist republics to draw inspiration from a successful breakaway state. Despite being Cold War rivals, both superpowers' interests aligned in favor of keeping Nigeria unified.\n\n### What role did France play, and why did it support Biafra?\n\nFrance was Biafra's largest foreign supporter, providing aircraft, armored vehicles, captured World War II weapons, foreign mercenaries, and diplomatic backing. France's motivation was partly geopolitical rivalry with Britain—which backed Nigeria—and partly the promise of oil concessions from Biafra. French support was so strong that Ojukwu even suggested making French lessons mandatory in Biafran schools. France also used its platform internationally to argue that Nigeria was committing genocide by starvation.\n\n### How did the blockade cause civilian deaths, and what humanitarian response emerged?\n\nNigeria's blockade of Biafra cut off food and medical supplies, leading to mass starvation. An estimated two million Biafrans died—half of them children—from hunger and malnutrition over the war's two and a half years. Images of malnourished Biafran children shocked international audiences and prompted volunteer pilots to risk their lives dropping food by plane. The French Red Cross's harrowing experience treating victims inside Biafra directly led its members to found Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), a group committed to providing medical aid regardless of nationality or conflict.\n\n### What has happened since the war ended, and is another conflict possible?\n\nNigeria was formally reunited in January 1970 after Biafra's surrender, but the aftermath was harsh for the Igbo: Nigeria changed its currency making Biafran savings worthless, the government was accused of failing to rebuild the devastated region, and Igbo families routinely had homes stolen by wealthier groups with no government recourse. In 2012, a new separatist movement called the Indigenous People of Biafra emerged, and by 2021 its paramilitary wing was clashing with the Nigerian Army, leaving over a hundred dead. Separatist leaders have declared a Second Biafran War has begun, making renewed large-scale conflict a genuine possibility.\n\n## Related Coverage\n- [Myanmar’s Civil War: Why Can’t Any Side Break Through?](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/myanmars-civil-war-why-cant-any-side-break-through)\n- [South Sudan on the Brink: Nation Faces Collapse](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/south-sudan-on-the-brink-collapse)\n- [Sudan's Forgotten War: Why the World Looks Away](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/sudans-forgotten-war)\n- [Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: From Colonial Divide to a Burning Conflict](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/cameroon-anglophone-crisis-burning-conflict)\n- [Is a Decades-Long Turkish War Finally Over? Abdullah Öcalan Calls for Peace.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/is-a-decades-long-turkish-war-finally-over-abdullah-calan-calls-for-peace)\n\n" url: https://warfronts.pub/article/nigerian-civil-war-deadly-war-of-ethnicities.md canonical: https://warfronts.pub/article/nigerian-civil-war-deadly-war-of-ethnicities datePublished: 2026-03-04 dateModified: 2026-03-04 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://warfronts.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Warfronts image: "https://media.warfronts.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/O2OLdE6peHY/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 2bcd516cb050166c98ce6b8bf1ba5d449360c592f2b4b6b7b2922e032af19c2f tokens: 9159 summaryUrl: https://warfronts.pub/article/nigerian-civil-war-deadly-war-of-ethnicities.md.summary.md --- It would be an understatement to say that in the second half of the 20th century the world was full of civil wars. From Greece to Korea to the Congo, nearly every corner of the world saw some form of clash with a military coup d'etat or a civil uprising, and the various governments attempting to violently quell it. And, of course, the Cold War superpowers at the time saw these as perfect opportunities to flex on each other by supporting the side that aligned with their political agenda, often turning the conflicts into proxy wars. Normally, this was pretty straightforward, with a typical war seeing the Soviet Union send weapons and support to whatever local Marxist revolution was occurring, and the United States supporting anyone and everything that opposed communism. However, in the case of the Nigerian Civil War, the sides of the conflict would be anything but straightforward. Also known as the Biafra War, this one would turn out to be the center of one of the most convoluted international responses of all time, with the United States and the Soviet Union unbelievably supporting the same side, while countries like France and China were doing everything they could to help the opposite movement. The brutal fighting and ethnic violence that followed, and the grim possibility of a continuation erupting in the near future, make this conflict one of the most important and tragic in modern African history. ## Key Takeaways - The United States and Soviet Union both supported the Nigerian federal government while France and China backed Biafra, creating one of the Cold War's most unusual alliance configurations. - An estimated 2 million Biafrans, half of them children, died of starvation due to Nigeria's blockade during the two-and-a-half-year war from 1967 to 1970. - Gowon's division of Nigeria into twelve states in May 1967 deliberately separated the Igbo people from the oil-rich Niger Delta territories, triggering Ojukwu's declaration of Biafran independence. - The Soviet Union supplied MiG-17 fighter jets and 200 technicians to Nigeria, with Egyptian and later East German pilots flying combat missions because Nigerian pilots lacked sufficient training. - The French Red Cross presence in Biafra during the war directly led to the founding of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). ## Post-Colonial Chaos: 300 Ethnic Groups in One Nation On October 1st, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom, joining a long list of countries to do so in the last couple hundred years. Officially, the country was called the Federation of Nigeria, and though it was now governed by an elected Prime Minister, the Queen of England was still technically the monarch. With their independence secured, the Federation of Nigeria was now Africa's most populous country, with a population of over 45 million at the time. But the ethnic makeup of this 45 million is where the real complexity of the country lies — within the borders drawn up rather arbitrarily by their old colonial power, there were over 300 different cultural or ethnic groups, all now lumped without regard into a single country. Politics were definitely going to be messy, but it was even worse when considering just how different the three largest ethnic groups were. In the north of the country lived the largest ethnic group, the Hausa-Fulani. This region was dominated by Islam, and so the social and political hierarchy was controlled by local emirs who in turn obeyed the rule of the Sultan. The Sultan was the highest authority in political, religious, and economic matters, and the Hausa-Fulani were accustomed to such an absolute rule. The Hausa-Fulani, and other groups from the north, also made up the vast majority of Nigeria's military because there was a stereotype that they were stronger and tougher than the other ethnic groups. In the southwest lived the Yoruba, who had a similar system of monarchs, but here they had far less political power. Along with just having less overall authority, these monarchs, called Oba, were generally people who had earned their wealth and respect of their community, in contrast to the Hausa-Fulani up north, whose leaders generally inherited their status. The Yoruba were also seen as the wealthiest group, and they dominated Nigeria's capital at the time, Lagos. In the southeast of the country, in a place known as the Niger Delta, lived the Igbo, who had a very different approach compared to the other two groups. The Igbo had monarchs as well, but their position was mostly symbolic and they didn't hold much power. Instead, matters were voted on democratically by both men and women, and most cities or villages were relatively autonomous and voted their own laws. One more important detail — the southeast where the Igbo lived was home to Nigeria's massive oil reserves. This is an oversimplified explanation, and there were hundreds more ethnicities sprinkled throughout these areas, but these three main groups made up about 70% of their respective regions. Their differences are even further highlighted when factoring in religion, because Western missionaries had converted a huge portion of the South to Christianity, but they hadn't seen very much success in the Muslim North. This was the incredibly diverse mess that was now suddenly all wrapped up into a single, independent nation and needed to vote on matters that affected everyone. ## Labor Strikes, Rigged Elections, and the Massacre of 30,000 Igbos In the first two years, things seemed to be off to an okay start, but just as Nigeria began to stand up on its own legs, they began to wobble like those of a newborn goat. Starting just a couple years into independence, workers began to protest their low wages and poor living conditions, especially in Lagos, where the contrast with the lavish lifestyles of the wealthy was glaringly obvious. People worked long, grueling hours for low pay only to come home to overcrowded, often dangerous housing, and they weren't going to put up with it any longer. Even outside of Lagos, new protests and riots were popping up every day, with people from almost every ethnicity joining in. This eventually led to a historic, nation-wide labor strike in June 1964, during which riot police had to be deployed to disperse the crowds in several cities. In the end, the workers got what they wanted most — wage increases, but the government's resistance to reflect the will of the people solidified many citizens' beliefs that the politicians in charge were horribly corrupt. In 1963, there was a brief chance for some change when Nigeria switched up their government a bit when they established a federal republic and set up a new parliament, but in reality not much changed and corruption remained rampant. The distrust and hatred for corrupt politicians was so strong that when candidates for the 1964 elections were touring Nigeria they were routinely attacked, and sometimes the violence was so extreme that the Army was deployed to put a stop to it. The worst of this was in a central state inhabited by the Tiv people, where clashes with the Army were so intense that thousands of civilians were killed or arrested in deadly street battles. Eventually, though, the 1964 elections did take place, and resulted in a landslide victory for the Northern People's Congress, a political party with near unanimous support from the Hausa-Fulani in the north. With this victory, the previous Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was reelected. But a huge portion of the country saw this as yet another corrupt game. Violence started breaking out all over the country, and as more and more people began fleeing across the country back to their ethnic homelands, Nigeria's cultural division was as tense as it had ever been. In the north, especially, Igbos were targeted, leading to as many as 30,000 of them being massacred, half of which were children. This was done openly, with vast public support, and no attempts were even made to hide the killings. Anthropologist Charles Kiel was present in Nigeria when this happened, and he later recalled that when he saw the corpses in the street, soldiers merely apologized for the stench and escorted him away, reassuring him that they were doing the world a favor by getting rid of the Igbo. Because of this, Igbos, and other minorities at risk, fled in droves to other regions of the country. But things weren't so safe there either, as the people in these other regions were continuing to riot, this time accusing the reelected prime minister of rigging the election and gaining votes through fraud and his army's intimidation. This, of course, was only possible because the majority of the men in the army were northerners and had already proven they wouldn't hesitate to resort to violence. ## Two Coups, Two Dead Leaders, and the Aburi Accord's Collapse In January, 1966, a handful of army majors had gathered support from some soldiers and launched a military coup d'etat, in which they were successful in capturing nearly every important political figure in the north. The prime minister was executed, along with several other northern politicians, but the president conveniently happened to be on vacation at the time, and because he was an Igbo from the south, many believe he had actually been tipped off about the coup ahead of time to save his life. So the coup succeeded in the north, but in the rest of the country their attempts to overthrow the government were halted. The head of the Nigerian Army, Johnson Aguyi-Ironsi, was able to crush the revolution in the south and west, and was later able to capture the majors who initiated the coup. And with the government now in shambles, Ironsi declared himself head of state of Nigeria, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the remainder of parliament, vowing to restore order to the country. However, Ironsi had failed in one crucial part of suppressing the revolution, which was to hunt down and arrest the remaining dissenters within his army's ranks. The main leaders of the failed coup d'etat had been captured, but every man who had supported them was still an active member of the army. Failing to weed out these insurgents would soon turn out to be a fatal mistake. On a trip to Ibadan, the third largest city in Nigeria, the new head of state, Ironsi, was visiting military barracks when the army there suddenly mutinied and initiated a second coup d'etat. During this counter-coup, Ironsi was captured and executed, and, once again, a new leader of Nigeria was chosen — this time, it was Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon. Gowon did his best to put an end to the violence, and recorded several broadcasts urging the north to stop the mass killings, but to no avail. He also tried to meet with the four regional leaders of Nigeria's Supreme Military Council, from the North, East, West, and Midwest, but this was easier said than done. Gowon hoped to unite the four governors and find a way to end the country's crisis, but the general in charge of the eastern region, Ojukwu, refused to meet with the others because he feared for his life in the other states of Nigeria. Eventually, the parties were all able to meet abroad in Ghana, and after long discussions and negotiations, everyone agreed on one main point: Nigeria needed to return to a federation of semi-independent states. This would hopefully allow each region to handle its own local economy, laws, and other matters, while the Nigerian military government would only handle matters that would affect the country as a whole. At the end of the meeting, Gowon and the representatives from each region signed the Aburi Accord, which detailed how this new federation would be implemented, and everyone left the meeting with a sense of optimism. So it seemed for a moment that there was light shining through the clouds, and perhaps the violence and ethnic tension would be put to rest — but these hopes were dashed as soon as the leaders returned to Nigeria, when Gowon released a televised broadcast announcing that he had changed his mind concerning the Aburi Agreement, and would be drawing up Nigeria's new state lines as he saw fit. ## Secession, Embargo, and the Birth of the Republic of Biafra On the 27th of May 1967, Gowon officially divided Nigeria into twelve states, and, in doing so, sliced up Ojukwu's eastern region into 3 separate parts: the South Eastern State, the Rivers State, and the East Central State. This had been done in such a crafty way that the majority of the Igbo people were now located in the East Central State, while Nigeria's oil reserves were located in the other two states, effectively cutting them off from all possible revenue. Just three days later, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's new borders by announcing the independence and secession of his region, which was now officially called the Republic of Biafra. This was unacceptable to the Federal Military Government — not only because a portion of the country was attempting to secede, but also because they were taking with them the aforementioned oil reserves, and Biafra had already announced a new royalty tax on exports. Gowon responded by issuing a national decree that essentially gave him absolute power over any regional government, but the situation was already spiraling out of control and Biafra refused to acknowledge his authority. Ojukwu was well aware of the dangerous game he was playing, and after the secession he calmly said, "If civil war comes, and I do think it's imminent ... it will for us be the price of freedom." While the government decided on their next move, they placed a complete embargo on Biafra, with the crucial exception of oil exports, as they begrudgingly still relied on them, but later they expanded the blockade to include oil when they learned that the British oil companies Shell and BP had agreed to pay the royalties to Biafra. Shell and BP were vital partners of Nigeria's economy, and along with a couple other British firms, they made up nearly half of Nigeria's total foreign trade, exporting more than 500,000 barrels of oil every day. Losing these partnerships would cripple Nigeria's economy, and so the Federal Military government knew they had to act quickly before they lost Biafra, and their oil, forever. ## Operation Unicord and the Biafran Midwest Gambit The war began on July 6th, 1967, as mortar shells began striking the city of Ogoja, a city situated very close to the northern border between Biafra and Nigeria. Gowon announced that this operation was technically a "police action", though it was in fact the army carrying out the assault. The goal was clear: retake Biafra through any means necessary, and eliminate anyone who opposed the reintegration. But Nigeria's army in 1967 wasn't exactly prepared for serious combat. Despite fighting alongside the Allies as a British colony in World War 2, their current military was woefully untrained. Most of their officers had been foreigners that had long since left, and many others had been executed in army purges. They were more of a glorified, heavily armed police force and lacked any experience carrying out complex military operations. But their opponent was even less prepared for the conflict, despite Ojukwu's confident remarks about freedom. At the onset of the war, both sides only had a few thousand men ready to fight, and not nearly enough modern firearms to go around. The Nigerian offensive, codenamed Operation Unicord, successfully pushed through the northern border and captured several Biafran cities within the first month of fighting. Led by Colonel Muhammed Shuwa, the Nigerian Army was ruthless in its advances, hoping to move quickly and capture Biafra's capital, Enugu. At the same time, a Nigerian marine commando division landed in a surprise attack on Biafra's southern coast, hoping to capture the oil lines and cut off the independent region from outside supply lines. This is when the Biafrans started cashing in some luck: first, a scout team was able to kill one of Nigeria's high-ranking majors during a nighttime surprise attack in the north, and secondly, Ojukwu had come up with a clever plan to distract his enemies. This was codenamed Operation Torch, and it was intended to take advantage of the neutrality of the Midwest state next door. When the war had broken out, the Midwest had declared their neutrality, and the federal government approved this, expecting a quick end to the Biafran resistance and not expecting to need a full mobilization involving the whole country. Because of this, the federal forces were advancing only from the north and the south, leaving the west wide open. Meeting almost no resistance, Biafran forces charged into the Midwest, capturing city after city, until finally reaching the state's capital — which fell in just hours. Within just a few days, a huge portion of the Midwest state had fallen to Biafran forces, and the federal army now had to divert their attention away from Biafra to defend the new front, just as Ojukwu had hoped. After regrouping for a few days, the Biafrans continued their march through the Midwest, this time aiming for Nigeria's biggest city: Lagos. But they were now too far from home to help when riots against Biafran independence started breaking out. A few ethnicities within Biafra had sided with the government, and began violently protesting and raiding government buildings. At one point, they attacked a small Biafran army camp, where they killed 50 soldiers and stole all of their weapons. In response, the Biafran soldiers marching through the Midwest raided small villages of the ethnicities responsible, committing severe atrocities against civilians. ## The Fall of Enugu and the Republic of Benin By mid-September, the entire Midwest was under Biafran control, and Ojukwu declared its new name the Republic of Benin, a part of Biafra. When this news reached Gowon, he removed the label of "police action" from the conflict, and declared all-out war on Biafra. Just a day later, Nigerian divisions began attacking the western border of the newly named republic, forcing the Biafrans to retreat from the territory they'd just captured. At the same time, the commando division that had landed in the south was redirected to the west, and was able to push the Biafrans back with heavy mortar attacks and quick, decisive strikes. After just a couple days, the entire Midwest state had been retaken by the government, who was now marching to Biafra's capital, Enugu. Federal jets began bombing the capital, and Ojukwu had to plead with his army to not abandon the city, but the aerial bombings were just too intense, and after a few days people began evacuating from the capital. In October, the federal forces reached the capital, and bombed it with heavy artillery before marching in. They surrounded Ojukwu's house, but he was able to miraculously escape by disguising himself as a servant and fleeing, saving his life, but abandoning the capital of his republic. Enugu had fallen, and the federal government was certain this demoralizing defeat would mean the end of the Biafran secession. But they were wrong. The quick end of the war that Gowon had hoped for slipped through his fingers with Ojukwu's escape. After fleeing south, he quickly set up a new headquarters and a reformed Biafran government, determined to hold out against the federal army. Ethnic hatred was running so high that the federal army began raiding villages and accusing them of being Biafran supporters simply based on their ethnicity, often beating or killing anyone found guilty. The worst of these raids was in the village of Asaba, where dozens of men, women, and children were beaten or executed as a result of the accusations. After a day or so of being terrorized by the army, the remaining citizens gathered at the main street, dressed in traditional clothing, and began chanting phrases in support of the federal government, such as "One Nigeria", the slogan of the current ruling party. The army simply stood by and watched until they received, and obeyed, the heartless order to open fire. When the booming of machine guns had finished, well over a thousand innocent people had lost their lives, mostly men and boys, who had been separated from the women before the shooting started. ## Frontline Battles: Onitsha, Calabar, and Guerrilla Resistance Throughout the next few months, battles raged all along the frontline between the two forces. At the city Onitsha, federal forces made a daring charge as they crossed the River Niger in small boats, only to be repelled when Biafran reinforcements arrived, and any attempts to cross the river again for a follow-up attack were unsuccessful. At the southern coastal city Calabar, the army was able to crush the Biafran resistance thanks to aerial and naval firepower, but instead of a full retreat, the Biafran forces fled to the outskirts of the city and began fighting a guerrilla war against the attackers. Ojukwu responded to their desperate pleas for help by dispatching a unit of foreign mercenaries, led by an experienced French paratrooper, but these men were also forced to retreat in the face of heavy mortar fire and air superiority, and Calabar soon fell to the government forces. By 1968, even after a battle where they suffered their highest casualties yet, the government forces had captured most of Biafra's coastline, northern, and western borders, and were preparing to slowly encircle and squeeze out the seceding territory like a boa constrictor. The stage was now set for the intervention of foreign powers, as the international community could no longer ignore the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding inside the blockaded territory. ## A Convoluted Web of Foreign Aid and Cold War Alliances The international community was well aware of what was happening in Nigeria at the time, and they were pretty split on how to respond. Most countries started off with a hands-off approach, sympathizing with the Biafran motive but not really doing much else, and definitely not officially recognizing the region as a new nation. But things started to change in 1968 when footage of the war began reaching televisions all around the world, and the images were nothing short of haunting. Nigeria's blockade of Biafra had resulted in a mass food shortage, and severe hunger was widespread. Biafra claimed that Nigeria was committing genocide by starvation, and the chilling photos of thousands of malnourished children brought much of the world to support this claim. Families watching from home in the United States were outraged, and movements to send food to Biafra began to gather serious support. But the US government itself maintained its official stance of neutrality, as they claimed that it was Britain's post-colonial area of influence and they wouldn't interfere. This neutrality, though, is usually seen as supporting the Nigerian side, because the State Department had hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets in Lagos, and didn't want it to fall into the hands of the Biafrans. The Soviet Union was a huge supporter of Nigeria's side, largely because the USSR was very anti-secessionist — after all, they didn't want any of their own fifteen Soviet socialist republics to get any ideas. The Soviet Union sold weapons, ammunition, and even a squadron of MiG-17 fighter jets, along with 200 Soviet technicians to keep them in shape. However, it turned out that the Nigerian pilots weren't trained well enough on modern aircraft, so Egypt allowed its Air Force pilots to join the war and fly for Nigeria. These pilots were eventually replaced with some from East Germany because they were better trained for the fighter jet and much more accurate with their bombing runs. The USSR's support of the Nigerian government also reflected their positions in other African conflicts, such as in the Congo, where similar movements had sprung up. Britain also sided with the Nigerian government. This was mostly due to the fact that Nigeria sold a significant amount of oil to them, but also because they saw Nigerian victory as the best way to restabilize the region. Britain sent weapons, ammunition, intelligence, and even helped hire foreign mercenaries for Nigeria. Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, and Syria were also notable supporters of the Nigerian government. Israel was also on this side, but, funny enough, only for the first half of the war. Starting in 1968, their growing distrust of the Nigerian government and its strong Muslim backbone, as well as their sympathy for the victims of the genocide in Biafra, prompted them to switch alliances and begin funding the secessionist state. They sent hundreds of tons of food and weapons, and even a transport plane. Now, onto Biafra's side — the biggest supporter, by far, was France. France gave aircraft, weapons, and even armored vehicles to the Biafran military, helped them hire foreign mercenaries, and sent them huge shipments of captured Axis weapons from World War II. They also promoted their cause in the international scene, becoming their loudest supporter and urging the world to recognize the genocide that was taking place. Biafra also promised them a lot of oil. The support was so strong that Ojukwu even suggested that Biafra have mandatory French lessons in school. Along with France, Portugal, Spain, and West Germany sent weapons, along with a host of assorted African nations and, interestingly, Czechoslovakia, who did all they could for Biafra until they had to withdraw their support and focus on their own needs when the Soviet Union knocked on their door during the Warsaw Pact invasions. The last big supporter of Biafra was none other than China, mostly out of spite in their rivalry with the Soviet Union since the communist friendship between the two had soured in recent years. If the Soviets were supporting something, they were against it, and so they smuggled weapons into Biafra through Tanzania, sending well over 2 million dollars' worth of arms. ## Mercenaries, the Red Cross, and the Birth of Doctors Without Borders Biafra was also stuffed to the brim with foreign mercenaries, many of whom developed serious emotional motivation to help the Biafran cause. Among these men was a Polish pilot, former German and Scottish soldiers, and even a Belgian mercenary who reportedly drew his motivation from his intense hatred for the British government. Aside from the military support, nearly every country was sympathetic to the starvation of Biafra, but many struggled to find ways to help. The French Red Cross was very prominent in the region, but even they were subject to brutal attacks at times. Despite the danger, they remained in the warzone, and eventually founded the group that would go on to become Doctors Without Borders, as they were desperate to see the creation of a group that would provide help regardless of nationality, religion, or conflict. The Catholic Church and other Christian organizations had various foundations that shipped food through neighboring countries, especially once it was learned that the Biafrans were largely Christian, and various Non-Governmental Organizations began popping up to provide relief. It was still incredibly difficult to get the food to Biafra though, and volunteers would often risk their lives to fly their own planes over the region and drop sacks of food and medicine. But it still wasn't enough to curb the region's hunger, and thousands were dying of malnutrition as the weeks wore on. So this is where the two sides stood in mid-1968. Both heavily armed by various foreign powers, fighting a slow, bloody war for what they believed was right for their country. Biafra was surrounded, but they refused to surrender, determined to fight to the last man. ## The Final Offensive: Port Harcourt, Operation Tail-Wind, and Biafra's Surrender In late 1968, the Nigerian army began what it called "The Final Offensive", certain that with a final, decisive push they could put an end to this insurgency once and for all. The first main objective of this operation was Port Harcourt, a sprawling riverside city that was Biafra's only remaining access to the sea. First, the Nigerian army pushed on to the city Afam, knocking out a power station that brought electricity to much of Biafra, plunging the region into blackouts. As they continued pushing the frontline northward, heading for Port Harcourt, a broadcast was heard on every radio, as Ojukwu rallied the Biafrans to defend the port: "Gowon wants Port Harcourt. He wants our own wealth by all means and at all costs, but he cannot get it. Port Harcourt signifies our freedom." But ultimately, the Biafrans were no match for the superior firepower that had been placed in the hands of the Nigerian army. Blankets of mortar fire rained down on the army barracks and airport, and bombing runs shook the city night and day. After 5 days of heavy combat, despite resisting with all their might, the Biafrans were forced out of the city, and Port Harcourt had fallen. This was a demoralizing loss, and many Biafrans were losing hope that a victory would ever be possible. The Nigerians ruthlessly continued inland throughout 1969, capturing city after city and shaking off Biafran counterattacks. Eventually, Biafra was only a fraction of its former size, and a clever Nigerian attack split the remaining land in half. Finally, in early 1970, the Nigerians initiated Operation Tail-Wind, attacking the north and south halves of remaining Biafra territory simultaneously, and successfully captured all remaining cities. Ojukwu was forced to flee, ending up in exile in the Ivory Coast, and Biafra officially surrendered two days later. ## Two Million Dead and the Lasting Scars of Starvation and Dispossession Nigeria was finally reunited, but at what cost? Deaths from combat were quite high, with as many as 100,000 men being killed during the two and a half years of fighting, but the civilian numbers were simply jaw-dropping. An estimated 2 million Biafrans died of starvation during the blockade — half of which were children. Those who managed to survive were subject to permanent damage from the months of severe malnutrition, including reduced height and strength, fertility issues, as well as extreme poverty that plagued the post-war region for years. The poverty was made worse by the fact that Nigeria changed its currency near the end of the war, so any reserves of old currency held by Biafrans was useless once the country was reunited. For decades, the Igbo people and others in the region accused the government of failing to provide funds to reconstruct the destroyed region, and further political and ethnic tensions remained over who would control the lucrative oil fields and exports. Igbo people routinely had their houses stolen from them by wealthier families following the conflict, with the government refusing to help, leaving many once-stable families homeless, alongside hundreds of thousands of refugees that had fled during the massacres preceding the war. ## The Indigenous People of Biafra and the Specter of a Second War These tensions ebbed and flowed for decades, but they have taken a new turn. In 2012, a new separatist movement was announced: the Indigenous People of Biafra, a determined political group vowing to restore Biafra's independence. In 2021, a paramilitary wing of this new group raided a farm, killing the livestock and razing the fields as a punishment for disobeying orders. The Nigerian Army was deployed, and the fighting between the two left over a hundred dead. There are active separatists in almost every region of what was once Biafra, and their violent clashes with both security forces and civilians of targeted ethnicities are becoming more and more commonplace. The future of the region is unstable, to say the least. It is unclear whether or not full-scale conflict will erupt once again, but the possibility is not off the table, especially with the separatists having already announced that the Second Biafran war has begun, with the claim that this time around, Biafra will win. The Nigerian Civil War remains a stark reminder of how colonial border-drawing, ethnic rivalry, oil politics, and Cold War maneuvering can combine to devastating effect. The unresolved grievances that fueled the original conflict — ethnic marginalization, economic dispossession, and political corruption — continue to simmer beneath the surface of Nigerian society, making the lessons of 1967–1970 as relevant as ever. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What sparked the secession of Biafra and the start of the war? On May 27, 1967, Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon divided Nigeria into twelve states in a way that placed the Igbo people in the East Central State while moving the oil-rich Niger Delta into separate states, effectively cutting the Igbo off from Nigeria's oil revenues. Three days later, Eastern Region leader Ojukwu declared independence for the Republic of Biafra. The federal government rejected the secession, imposed an embargo, and launched military operations in July 1967. ### Why did the United States and Soviet Union end up on the same side? The US maintained unofficial support for the Nigerian federal government primarily because it held hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in Lagos and did not want those assets to fall under Biafran control. The Soviet Union backed the federal government because it was strongly anti-secessionist—it did not want any of its own fifteen Soviet socialist republics to draw inspiration from a successful breakaway state. Despite being Cold War rivals, both superpowers' interests aligned in favor of keeping Nigeria unified. ### What role did France play, and why did it support Biafra? France was Biafra's largest foreign supporter, providing aircraft, armored vehicles, captured World War II weapons, foreign mercenaries, and diplomatic backing. France's motivation was partly geopolitical rivalry with Britain—which backed Nigeria—and partly the promise of oil concessions from Biafra. French support was so strong that Ojukwu even suggested making French lessons mandatory in Biafran schools. France also used its platform internationally to argue that Nigeria was committing genocide by starvation. ### How did the blockade cause civilian deaths, and what humanitarian response emerged? Nigeria's blockade of Biafra cut off food and medical supplies, leading to mass starvation. An estimated two million Biafrans died—half of them children—from hunger and malnutrition over the war's two and a half years. Images of malnourished Biafran children shocked international audiences and prompted volunteer pilots to risk their lives dropping food by plane. The French Red Cross's harrowing experience treating victims inside Biafra directly led its members to found Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), a group committed to providing medical aid regardless of nationality or conflict. ### What has happened since the war ended, and is another conflict possible? Nigeria was formally reunited in January 1970 after Biafra's surrender, but the aftermath was harsh for the Igbo: Nigeria changed its currency making Biafran savings worthless, the government was accused of failing to rebuild the devastated region, and Igbo families routinely had homes stolen by wealthier groups with no government recourse. In 2012, a new separatist movement called the Indigenous People of Biafra emerged, and by 2021 its paramilitary wing was clashing with the Nigerian Army, leaving over a hundred dead. 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