The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria–Biafra War, or Biafra War, was an armed conflict fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state that had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. During the war years, General Yakubu Gowon served as the head of state of Nigeria, while Biafra was led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu. The conflict emerged from political, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions that preceded the United Kingdom's formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and anti-Igbo pogroms in the Northern Region. As a consequence of these pogroms, alongside the mass exodus of surviving Igbos from the Northern Region to the Igbo homelands in the Eastern Region, the leadership of the Eastern Region concluded that the Nigerian federal government was either unwilling or unable to guarantee them an adequate protection, therefore, the only remaining solution seemed to be to guarantee their compatriots' security by establishing a sovereign and independent country of Biafra.
Within a year, Nigerian government troops surrounded Biafra, while capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. In the aftermath of the Nigerian military's encirclement of the major part of Biafra, a blockade was imposed as a deliberate policy during the ensuing stalemate, which led to the mass starvation of Biafran civilians. During the 2+1⁄2 years of the war, there were approximately 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 to 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.
Alongside the concurrent Vietnam War, the Nigerian Civil War was one of the first wars in human history to be televised to a global audience. In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Additionally, Biafra received international humanitarian aid from civilians during the Biafran airlift, an event which inspired the formation of Doctors Without Borders following the end of the war. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while France, Ivory Coast, and Gabon supported Biafra. The official position of the United States was one of neutrality, considering Nigeria as "a responsibility of Britain", but some interpreted the refusal to recognise Biafra as favouring the Nigerian government.
The war highlighted challenges within pan-Africanism during the early stages of African independence from colonial rule, suggesting that the diverse nature of African people may present obstacles to achieving common unity. Additionally, it shed light on initial shortcomings within the Organization of African Unity. The war also resulted in the political marginalization of the Igbo people, as Nigeria has not had another Igbo president since the end of the war, leading some Igbo people to believe they are being unfairly punished for the war. Igbo nationalism has emerged since the end of the war, as well as various neo-Biafran secessionist groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra.
The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria–Biafra War, or Biafra War, was an armed conflict fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state that had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. During the war years, General Yakubu Gowon served as the head of state of Nigeria, while Biafra was led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu. The conflict emerged from political, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions that preceded the United Kingdom's formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and anti-Igbo pogroms in the Northern Region. As a consequence of these pogroms, alongside the mass exodus of surviving Igbos from the Northern Region to the Igbo homelands in the Eastern Region, the leadership of the Eastern Region concluded that the Nigerian federal government was either unwilling or unable to guarantee them an adequate protection, therefore, the only remaining solution seemed to be to guarantee their compatriots' security by establishing a sovereign and independent country of Biafra.
Within a year, Nigerian government troops surrounded Biafra, while capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. In the aftermath of the Nigerian military's encirclement of the major part of Biafra, a blockade was imposed as a deliberate policy during the ensuing stalemate, which led to the mass starvation of Biafran civilians. During the 2+1⁄2 years of the war, there were approximately 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 to 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.
Alongside the concurrent Vietnam War, the Nigerian Civil War was one of the first wars in human history to be televised to a global audience. In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Additionally, Biafra received international humanitarian aid from civilians during the Biafran airlift, an event which inspired the formation of Doctors Without Borders following the end of the war. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while France, Ivory Coast, and Gabon supported Biafra. The official position of the United States was one of neutrality, considering Nigeria as "a responsibility of Britain", but some interpreted the refusal to recognise Biafra as favouring the Nigerian government.
The war highlighted challenges within pan-Africanism during the early stages of African independence from colonial rule, suggesting that the diverse nature of African people may present obstacles to achieving common unity. Additionally, it shed light on initial shortcomings within the Organization of African Unity. The war also resulted in the political marginalization of the Igbo people, as Nigeria has not had another Igbo president since the end of the war, leading some Igbo people to believe they are being unfairly punished for the war. Igbo nationalism has emerged since the end of the war, as well as various neo-Biafran secessionist groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra.
Background
Ethnic division
This civil war can be connected to the colonial amalgamation in 1914 of the British Northern Protectorate, Lagos Colony, and Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which was intended for better administration due to the proximity of these protectorates. However, the change did not take into consideration the differences in the culture and religions of the people in each area. Competition for political and economic power exacerbated tensions.
Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, with a population of 45.2 million made up of more than 300 diverse ethnic and cultural groups. When the colony of Nigeria was created, its three largest ethnic groups were the Igbo, who formed about 60–70% of the population in the southeast; the Hausa-Fulani of the Sokoto Caliphate, who formed about 67% of the population in the northern part of the territory; and the Yoruba, who formed about 75% of the population in the southwest. Although these groups have their homelands, by the 1960s, the people were dispersed across Nigeria, with all three ethnic groups represented substantially in major cities. When the war broke out in 1967, there were still more than 5,000 Igbos in Lagos.
The semi-feudal and Muslim Hausa-Fulani in the north were traditionally ruled by a conservative Islamic hierarchy consisting of emirs who in turn owed their ultimate allegiance to the Sultan of Sokoto, whom they regarded as the source of all political power and religious authority. Apart from the Hausa-Fulani, the Kanuri were another dominant majority Muslim ethnic group that had key figures in the war. They made up about 5% of Nigeria's population and were the dominant ethnic group in the north-east. They historically successfully resisted the Sokoto Caliphate during the 19th century through their millennium-long Kanem-Bornu empire. The southernmost part of the region, known as the Middle Belt, had large Christian and Animist populations. Through missionary activities and the 'Northernisation' policy of the Regional Government, the sub-region had a significant share of Eurocentric-educated population. Several senior military and political commanders on the Nigerian side of the war originated from this sub-region, such as Yakubu Gowon and Theophilus Danjuma, both of whom were Christians.
The Yorubapolitical system in the southwest, like that of the Hausa-Fulani, also consisted of a series of monarchs, the Obas. The Yoruba monarchs, however, were less autocratic than those in the north. The political and social system of the Yoruba accordingly allowed for greater upward mobility, based on acquired rather than inherited wealth and title. The Yoruba were major victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade in the first half of the 19th century, due to the instability caused by the decline and collapse of the Oyo Empire.
In contrast to the two other groups, Igbos in the southeast lived in autonomous, democratically organised communities. Unlike the other two regions, decisions within the Igbo communities were made by a general assembly in which men and women participated. Considering this participation by women in this civil war, the study Female fighters and the fates of rebellions: How mobilizing women influences conflict duration by Reed M. Wood observed that there was a correlation between the duration of wars between rebel groups and the number of women that participated within the conflict at hand. In discussing the correlation between conflicts of longer duration and a high rate of participation of women, the study suggests that gender norms and the general ways in which "an armed group recruits as well as who it recruits may subsequently influence its behaviors during the conflict and the manner in which the conflict unfolds."
The differing political systems and structures reflected and produced divergent customs and values. The Hausa-Fulani commoners, having contact with the political system only through a village head designated by the emir or one of his subordinates, did not view political leaders as amenable to influence. Political decisions were to be submitted to. As with many other authoritarian religious and political systems, leadership positions were given to persons willing to be subservient and loyal to superiors. A chief function of this political system in this context was to maintain conservative values, which caused many Hausa-Fulani to view economic and social innovation as subversive or sacrilegious.
In contrast to the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbos and other Biafrans often participated directly in the decisions that affected their lives. Furthermore, they had a lively awareness of the political system, regarding it as instrumental for achieving their personal goals. Status was acquired through the ability to arbitrate disputes that might arise in the village, and through acquiring rather than inheriting wealth. The Igbo had been substantially victimised in the Atlantic slave trade; in the year 1790, it was reported that of 20,000 people sold each year from Bonny, 16,000 were Igbo. With their emphasis upon social achievement and political participation, the Igbo adapted to and challenged colonial rule in innovative ways.
These tradition-derived differences were perpetuated and perhaps enhanced by the colonial government in Nigeria. In the north, the colonial government found it convenient to rule indirectly through the emirs, thus perpetuating rather than changing the indigenous authoritarian political system. Christian missionaries were excluded from the north, and the area thus remained virtually closed to European cultural influence. By contrast, the richest of the Igbo often sent their sons to British universities, with the intention of preparing them to work with the British. During the ensuing years, the northern emirs maintained their traditional political and religious institutions while reinforcing their social structure. At the time of independence in 1960, the north was by far the most underdeveloped area in Nigeria. It had an English literacy rate of 2%, as compared to 19.2% in the east (literacy in Ajami, local languages in Arabic script, learned in connection with religious education, was much higher). Additionally, the western part of the country also enjoyed a much higher literacy level, as it was the first part of the country to have contact with Western education and established a free primary education program under the pre-independence Western Regional Government.
In the west, the missionaries rapidly introduced Western forms of education. Consequently, the Yoruba were the first group in Nigeria to adopt Western bureaucratic social norms. They made up the first classes of African civil servants, doctors, lawyers, and other technicians and professionals.
Missionaries were introduced at a later date in eastern areas because the British experienced difficulty establishing firm control over the highly autonomous communities there. However, the Igbo and other Biafran people actively embraced Western education, and they overwhelmingly came to adopt Christianity. Population pressure in the Igbo homeland, combined with aspirations for monetary wages, drove thousands of Igbos to other parts of Nigeria in search of work. By the 1960s, Igbo political culture was more unified and the region relatively prosperous, with tradesmen and literate elites active not just in the traditionally Igbo east, but throughout Nigeria. By 1966, the traditional ethnic and religious differences between northerners and the Igbo were exacerbated by new differences in education and economic class.
Politics and economics of federalism
The colonial administration divided Nigeria into three regions—North, West, and East—something which exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social differences among Nigeria's different ethnic groups. The country was divided in such a way that the North had a slightly higher population than the other two regions combined. There were also widespread reports of fraud during Nigeria's first census, and even today, population remains a highly political issue in Nigeria. On this basis, the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the colonial authorities. Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and based on ethnic allegiances: the Northern People's Congress (NPC) in the North; the Action Group in the West (AG); and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the East. Although these parties were not exclusively homogeneous in terms of their ethnic or regional make-up, the disintegration of Nigeria resulted largely from the fact that these parties were primarily based in one region and one tribe.
The basis of modern Nigeria was formed in 1914 when the United Kingdom amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates. Beginning with the Northern Protectorate, the British implemented a system of indirect rule, in which they exerted influence through alliances with local forces. This system worked so well that Colonial Governor Frederick Lugard successfully lobbied to extend it to the Southern Protectorate through amalgamation. In this way, a foreign and hierarchical system of governance was imposed on the Igbos. Intellectuals began to agitate for greater rights and independence. The size of this intellectual class increased significantly in the 1950s, with the massive expansion of the national education program. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Igbo and Yoruba parties were at the forefront of the campaign for independence from British rule. Northern leaders, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the continuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions, with the North having a clear majority. Igbo and Yoruba leaders, anxious to obtain an independent country at all costs, accepted the Northern demands.