The Biafran War was one of the most brutal and bloody conflicts of modern times.
Also known as the Nigerian Civil War, it left a million dead and millions more displaced.
It also shaped so much of our thinking on secession and independence.
And yet today it's largely forgotten.
So what was the conflict all about? And why was it so especially significant?
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Hello and welcome. If you're new my name is James Ker-Lindsay and here I take an
informed look at international relations, conflict and the origins of countries.
As I've noted many times, the international community has a deep aversion to secession.
States particularly detest unilateral secession.
However, while we might like to think that these ideas have existed for centuries, in truth the
current thinking evolved over several decades after 1945 and the founding of the United Nations.
In particular, contemporary attitudes to secession can be traced back to two very
specific cases of separatism that occurred in Africa in the 1960s.
In a previous video, I looked at the first of these:
Katanga's attempt to break away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
However, while Katanga's secession set out the idea of opposing unilateral secession,
these ideas would not be truly cemented until the Biafran War, just a few years later.
Between them, these two cases serve to underscore the idea that the principle of respecting
the territorial integrity of states no longer applied just to threats from other countries.
Henceforth, it would also be applied to internal attempts to secede.
But the Biafran War also stands out for another reason.
Also known as the Nigerian Civil War, it's now largely forgotten in the wider world.
And yet, when it took place in the late 1960s,
it was widely considered to be the humanitarian tragedy of its era.
Over the course of the three years it lasted, it's estimated that well over a million people died -
either directly in the fighting or as an indirect result of the famine and illness arising from it.
So, what was the Biafran War?
Nigeria lies in West Africa.
At around 910,000 square kilometers,
or 350,000 square miles, it's the 31st largest of the 193 members of the United Nations.
Its population is currently estimated to be in the region of 200 million.
This makes it the most populous country in Africa, and seventh in the world as a whole.
It's also extremely diverse.
It's estimated that the country is made up of more than 250 different ethno-linguistic groups.
However, the three main groups are the Hausa and Fulani,
representing around 30 percent of the population and located mainly in the north of the country;
the Yoruba, who make up around 20 of the population and from the south west of Nigeria;
and the Igbo, who represent 20 and come from the southeast of the country.
The story really begins in the middle of the
19th century and the European colonial scramble for Africa.
In 1851, British forces captured the coastal port of Lagos, which was formally annexed in 1865.
Then, in 1885, Britain was awarded a number of other territories in the region
under the Berlin Conference, which formalised a lot of the European colonial holdings in Africa.
In 1900, these territories formally became
the Southern Nigerian protectorate and the Northern Nigerian Protectorate.
However, the crucial moment came in 1914.
Facing a budget deficit in the Northern Protectorate,
the two protectorates were merged to form the Colony and Protectorate
of Nigeria - a step that would eventually have profound implications for the country.
Following the end of the Second World War, and the start of the process of decolonisation,
Britain prepared to depart the country.
In 1954, as Nigeria moved towards independence, it was reconstituted as the Federation of Nigeria.
This was composed of three regions that broadly mapped onto the main groups:
the Hausa-Fulani Northern Nigeria; the Igbo Eastern Nigeria; and the Yoruba Western Nigeria.
Six years later, on the 1 October 1960,
Nigeria formally became independent, joining the United Nations soon afterwards.
In 1964, the country held its first post-independence general election.
Marred by serious political violence, the final results, which were highly disputed,
saw a victory by the Northern People's Congress.
Over the course of 1965, tensions grew in the country.
And on the 15 January 1966, a number of junior military officers from the
southern Igbo ethnic group launched an attempted coup.
This led to the assassination of 22 senior political and military figures,
including the prime minister, the finance minister, the premier of Western Nigeria,
and Sir Ahmadu Bello, the premier of Northern Nigeria.
Although the coup was quickly defeated, its effects would be widely felt.
On 28 July, another coup saw northern army officers take control of the country.
In reprisal for the earlier attempted coup,
they executed several hundred southerners; most of them ethnic Igbo.
At the same time, the attacks on Igbo living in the north
increased; with an estimated 10 to 30,000 people murdered.
This sparked a mass exodus of Igbo from the north
as up to 2 million fled south to the safety of the Igbo dominated Eastern Region.
By now, the country was in crisis and talk was growing of eastern secession.
On 4 and 5 January 1967, the British Government
organised a peace conference in Ghana between the Nigerian leader,
Colonel Yakubu Gowon, and the leader of Eastern Province, Colonel Odomegwu Ojukwu.
There the sides appeared to reach an agreement - the Aburi Accord.
However, a dispute soon arose over what exactly the sides had agreed.
In Ojukwu's view, this now paved the way for the creation of a loose confederation in Nigeria.
However, this was rejected by the central government.
Meanwhile, at the start of May, and in an attempt to weaken the East,
which was also a centre of the country's increasingly important oil production,
the Government announced that the country would be reconstituted into 12 states.
On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu responded by unilaterally
declaring independence - formally proclaiming the creation of the Republic of Biafra.
Then, just over a month later, on 6 July 1967,
the federal government declared war on the breakaway province.
In retrospect, the result never seemed in doubt.
In the months that followed the Nigerian army made considerable headway;
aided by the fact that non-Igbo areas in the East sided with the federal government.
The area under the control of the Biafran authorities shrank by a third by August.
Meanwhile, In October, the Biafran capital, Enugu,
fell to Nigerian troops forcing the administration to relocate.
However, the most significant blow came in May 1968 when the
government took control of Port Harcourt - thus imposing a blockade on Biafra.
As a result, the region now suffered a famine that left well over a million people dead.
In the course of the following year, the Nigerian Army continued to make
progress and by the end of 1969 the conflict was all but lost.
At the start of 1970, Ojukwu fled and on the 15 January the war officially came to an end after 30
months when the chief of the Biafran Army declared that the Republic of Biafra had ceased to exist.
A few days later, and in an attempt to start the process of national reconciliation
and reconstruction, General Gowon, as the head of the country's military government,
gave a speech stating that there was 'no victor, no vanquished'.
In the years since then, Nigeria has deliberately tried to forget about its civil war - although
pro-Biafran feeling still exists in the country, a topic that I hope to come back to at some point.
Internationally, the Biafra War had a huge impact.
At the time, at a public level, the Biafran cause attracted
massive sympathy - especially after pictures emerged of starving Biafran children.
This led to a major international humanitarian effort - the Biafran
Airlift - by various non-governmental organisations and church groups.
Meanwhile, at an official level, Biafra also enjoyed a degree of support.
In fact, five UN members actually recognised it as an independent state.
The first to do so was Tanzania, on the 13 April 1968.
It was soon followed by Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zambia.
The only non-African state to recognise it was Haiti.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes it enjoyed support - including military assistance - from Spain,
Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa, Israel and France;
all of which saw a weakened Nigeria as potentially beneficial.
But these were very much the outliers.
The vast majority of the international community
instead lined up to support the Nigerian government.
African states, in particular, viewed the developments with grave concern.
Like Nigeria, many had recently become independent within colonial borders that
often saw a diverse mix of ethnic groups forced to live under the same roof.
As they saw it Biafra's secession posed an existential threat
to their own territorial integrity.
Indeed the Organization of African Unity, the forerunner of today's African Union,
played a key role in rallying regional and international support for Nigeria.
However, two countries emerged as particularly strong Nigerian allies:
Britain and the Soviet Union.
In Britain's case, this was driven by a couple of key factors.
First of all, as it was engaged in an effort to prevent the recognition
of Rhodesia's 1965 unilateral declaration of independence,
it would not have looked good to support another unilateral secession elsewhere.
Secondly, judging from the start that Nigeria would win,
it sought to protect its own significant oil investments in the country.
As for the USSR, it saw the war as an opportunity to win over Nigeria,
which had long been seen as one of the strongest opponents of communism in sub-Saharan Africa.
Interestingly, the United States steered well clear of the war - viewing it as an internal
affair and not wishing to become embroiled in another conflict as it was fighting in Vietnam.
It officially opted to remain neutral and chose not to supply arms to either side.
More broadly, and notwithstanding the support Biafra enjoyed in certain limited quarters,
its attempt to break away served to cement the idea
that states should not recognise unilateral secession.
Up until that point, the idea of respecting the territorial integrity of states had been
essentially understood as respecting the borders of countries in the face of external aggression.
However the Congo Crisis and then Biafra
underscored the emerging idea that states should also respect the
territorial integrity of one another in the face of internal separatist threats.
As well as being the most populous country in Africa,
Nigeria is also one of the most obviously divided.
Like so many other examples of colonial state creation,
the British decision in the early 20th century to merge the two Nigerian protectorates - a decision
taken for economic reasons - created an entity that was fundamentally at odds with itself.
This would eventually have dramatic and tragic consequences
following the country's independence, in 1960.
The tensions between north and south soon spilled over into the political arena,
leading to mass killings and one of the most significant wars to affect modern Africa.
Indeed, the Biafran War was widely regarded as the most pressing humanitarian disaster of its day.
Over the course of two and a half years, millions died in a conflict that led to mass starvation.
It also left a powerful legacy in terms of the contemporary rules on secession.
While public opinion tended to be strongly on the side of the Igbo people, at an official level most
countries, especially in Africa, either opted to openly or tacitly support the Nigerian position.
Facing their own secessionist challenges,
they saw the conflict as a chance to affirm the importance of respecting the territorial
integrity of states - not only against external aggression but also against internal challenges.
And yet, for all its significance,
the Biafran War - the Nigerian Civil War - is now largely forgotten.
I hope you found that interesting.
If so, here are some more videos you might find useful.
Thanks so much for watching and see you in the next video.