Biafran War

The Biafran War, also called the Nigerian Civil War, was fought from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970 between the Federal Military Government of Nigeria and the secessionist Republic of Biafra, which comprised Nigeria's Eastern Region and was dominated by the Igbo people.

The conflict's roots lay in ethnic, religious, and regional tensions that intensified after Nigerian independence in 1960. Two military coups in 1966 — the January coup led by mostly Igbo officers and a July counter-coup by northern officers — were followed by massacres of Igbo civilians in the north, prompting a large refugee flow back to the Eastern Region. After the failure of the Aburi Accord negotiations in Ghana (January 1967), the Eastern Region's military governor, Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared independence as Biafra on 30 May 1967. Federal head of state Gen. Yakubu Gowon launched what was initially called a "police action" weeks later.

Federal forces blockaded Biafra by land and sea, and the resulting famine became the war's defining humanitarian catastrophe. Images of starving children — particularly those suffering from kwashiorkor — galvanised one of the first major modern NGO airlift operations, organised by the Joint Church Aid and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Estimates of war-related deaths, mostly from starvation and disease, commonly range from roughly 1 to 3 million.

Diplomatically, Biafra was recognised by only a handful of states, including Tanzania, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Zambia, and Haiti. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union supplied the federal side, while France provided covert assistance to Biafra. The Organisation of African Unity largely upheld the principle of territorial integrity and backed Lagos.

Biafra surrendered on 15 January 1970, and Gowon announced a policy of "no victor, no vanquished" alongside a reconstruction programme often summarised as the 3 Rs: reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. The war is widely cited as a catalyst for the modern humanitarian movement — Médecins Sans Frontières was founded in 1971 by French doctors who had served with the Red Cross in Biafra.