Biafra: a painful chapter in Nigeria’s history

Fifty years ago, the Igbo people of southeast Nigeria seceded, declaring an independent Republic of Biafra and sparking a brutal civil war that left about one million people dead.

– Coups and secession –
On May 30, 1967, the military head of Nigeria’s eastern region, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declares “the independent Republic of Biafra”.


His move comes two days after the whitelink head of Nigeria’s military government, General Yakubu Gowon, divided the federation into 12 states, including three in the east.

• Types of machineries are; 

Biafra, accounting for less than 10 percent of Nigerian territory, at the time had a population of 14 million out of 55 million nationwide.

Read: Biafra group accuses Nnamdi Kanu

Its mainly Christian population was two-thirds Igbo.

Since independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria had managed to stay a single entity despite historic enmity between the mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian south.

But the Igbos felt discriminated against by the two other main ethnic groupings, the northern Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba in the southwest.

Read more; Biafra: a painful chapter in Nigeria’s history

In January 1966, Nigeria suffered its first military coup, led by the Igbo General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi. A counter-coup launched in the north in July kills Ironsi and many of his senior Igbo officers. 

Read: Biafra will come without war ― Kanu’s brother

Thousands of Igbo civilians are killed in reprisals, especially in the north, and millions of survivors flee back to the southeast.

The government rejects the secession of the southeast, which is rich in agricultural and mineral resources, especially oil.