After suffering through years of suppression under Nigeria’s
military government, the breakaway state of Biafra proclaims its independence
from Nigeria.
In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. Six years
later, the Muslim Hausas in northern Nigeria began massacring the Christian
Igbos in the region, prompting tens of thousands of Igbos to flee to the east,
where their people were the dominant ethnic group. The Igbos doubted that
Nigeria’s oppressive military government would allow them to develop, or even
survive, so on May 30, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and other
non-Igbo representatives of the area established the Republic of Biafra,
comprising several states of Nigeria.
After diplomatic efforts by Nigeria failed to reunite the
country, war between Nigeria and Biafra broke out in July 1967. Ojukwu’s forces
made some initial advances, but Nigeria’s superior military strength gradually
reduced Biafran territory. The state lost its oil fields–its main source of
revenue–and without the funds to import food, an estimated one million of its
civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. On January 11, 1970,
Nigerian forces captured the provincial capital of Owerri, one of the last
Biafran strongholds, and Ojukwu was forced to flee to the Ivory Coast. Four
days later, Biafra surrendered to Nigeria.
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