On this day in 1970, the brutal 30-month civil war in Nigeria came to an end.
NEWS BREAK reports that the war caused an estimated one million civilian deaths, mostly due to starvation, and more than 100, 000 deaths among military forces on both sides (Nigerian and Biafran Army).
53 years since the Biafran soldiers goaded by now-late Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu surrendered to Nigeria, the secessionist demand is still active as many Easterners still agitate for a breakaway nation. That campaign was reignited in this era by the likes of Ralph Uwazuruike, Barrister Emeka Emekesiri, Nnamdi Kanu, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, Uche Okafor Mefor, Simon Ekpa and Princewill Chimezie Richards.
In 1967, Ojukwu, the military governor of Nigeria’s then-Eastern Region inhabited mainly by Igbo people, accused the federal government of marginalising and killing thousands of ethnic Igbos living in the North.
On May 30 of that year, Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared the former Eastern Region a sovereign and independent republic under the name of Biafra – a unilateral move rejected by the federal authorities.
A bloody civil war ensued, with federal troops deployed to stop the secessionist movement.
The Nigerian forces cut off aid and access to the area throughout the war, which ended with the surrender of Biafra in January 1970.
The Republic of Biafra ceased to exist and General Yakubu Gowon, the leader of the federal government, famously declared that there was “no victor, no vanquished” in the war.
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