Word: biafras
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Said Effiong, in a simple act of fealty to Major General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria's head of state and commander of its armed forces: "We are firm, we are loyal Nigerian citizens, and we accept the authority of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. The Republic of Biafra ceases to exist." His voice sounded tired. When he finished, Gowon embraced...
...Biafra had ceased to exist two days before Effiong's formal surrender. With federal troops advancing on all fronts, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, 36, Biafra's leader, realized that he had lost. With his family, three aides, three tons of luggage and his white Mercedes-Benz staff car, Ojukwu caught one of the last flights out of the beleaguered airstrip at Uli. The refugees were loaded aboard a Superconstellation that took off for a destination that had still not been disclosed a full week later; various reports placed Ojukwu in Lisbon; Libreville, capital of Gabon; and the Ivory...
...conflict that ended with such stunning swiftness was the first big modern war waged in Black Africa since the continent's colonies began receiving their independence. It was also one of the most devastating civil wars in modern history. At the outset, Biafra's people numbered 12 million-about two-thirds of them Ibo, the rest belonging to minority tribes (as does Effiong, who is an Ibibio). The secessionist territory covered nearly 30,000 sq. mi. and included some of Nigeria's richest land. At the close of the war, 3,500,000 people were squeezed into...
...hunger that probably did most to defeat Biafra's long-suffering defenders. On orders from Ojukwu, ammunition enjoyed priority over food shipments to Uli. Consequently, his troops had ample ammo in the war's last days, but they had been eating so poorly throughout the autumn that they simply lacked the strength to fight. Under intense pressure from federal forces, Biafra's two best divisions crumpled. The Nigerians sliced the rebel territory...
Compounding the horror of Biafra was the moral ambiguity that enveloped it from the first. Great powers and small became involved in the conflict, frequently for questionable reasons. The Soviet Union, eager to regain a foothold in Black Africa, delivered arms to help crush a rebellion that Moscow would, in another context, have hastened to hail as a "just war of national liberation." Britain, worried about African balkanization, Soviet influence and its own oil interests, supplied weapons to the Nigerians. The British were also concerned with preserving a state that its colonial officers had nursed to nationhood...