Editing Biafra (section)

==History==
[[File:Atlas Ortelius KB PPN369376781-006av-006br.jpg|thumb|right|Map of Africa ([[Abraham Ortelius]], 1584)]]
[[File:1770 Bonne Map of West Africa (Guinea, the Bight of Benin, Congo) - Geographicus - WestAfrica-bonne-1770.jpg|thumb|right|Map of West Africa ([[Rigobert Bonne]] (Royal Cartographer of France) 1770)]]
[[File:West Africa 1839 Mitchell map - Kong.jpg|thumb|right|Map of West Africa (1839); Biafra is shown in the region of "[[Lower Guinea]]"]]
[[File:The Kingd. of Biafara. Africae, Described. The manners of their Habits and buildings newly done into English by I.S (cropped).jpg|thumb|The Kingdom of Biafara, map by [[John Speed]] (1676)]]

[[Early modern]] maps of Africa from the 15th to the 19th&nbsp;centuries, drawn from accounts written by explorers and travellers, show references to Biafar, Biafara, Biafra,<ref>{{cite web |title=Map of Africa from 1669 |publisher=Afriterra Foundation |website=catalog.afriterra.org |url=http://catalog.afriterra.org/viewMap.cmd?number=785 |access-date=14 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724225407/http://catalog.afriterra.org/viewMap.cmd?number=785 |archive-date=24 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Map of Africa from 1669, Zoom |publisher=Afriterra Foundation |website=catalog.afriterra.org |type=zoomMap |url=http://catalog.afriterra.org/zoomMap.cmd?number=785 |access-date=14 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724225623/http://catalog.afriterra.org/zoomMap.cmd?number=785 |archive-date=24 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and Biafares.<ref>{{cite web |title=Map of North-West Africa, 1829 |publisher=University of Texas |department=U.T. Libraries |place=Texas, USA |url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/africa_nw_1829.jpg |access-date=14 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808111017/http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps//historical/africa_nw_1829.jpg |archive-date=8 August 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the maps, the European travellers used the word ''Biafara'' to describe the region of today's West Cameroon, including an area around today's Equatorial Guinea. The German publisher [[Johann Heinrich Zedler]], in his [[Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon|encyclopedia of 1731]], published the exact geographical location of the capital of Biafara, namely alongside the river [[Wouri River|Rio dos Camaroes]] in today's Cameroon, underneath 6 degrees 10 min latitude.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.zedler-lexikon.de/index.html?c=blaettern&id=34714&bandnummer=03&seitenzahl=0857&supplement=0&dateiformat=1%27) |title=Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenchafften und Künste |last1=Zedler |first1=Johann Heinrich |publisher=[[Bavarian State Library]] |access-date=10 May 2017 |quote=page 1684}}</ref> The words ''Biafara'' and ''Biafares'' also appear on maps from the 18th century in the area around Senegal and Gambia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/maps-central/central.html|title=1730 map – L'Isle, Guillaume de, 1675–1726|publisher=[[Princeton University Library]]|access-date=16 February 2017|location=Princeton, New Jersey, USA}}</ref>[[File:Gulf of Guinea Guillaume Lavasseur de Dieppe.jpg|thumbnail|right|French map of the Gulf of Guinea from 1849]]

In his personal writings from his travels, a Rev. Charles W. Thomas defined the locations of islands in the [[Bight of Biafra]] as "between the parallels of [[5th meridian east|longitude 5°]] and [[9th meridian east|9°&nbsp;East]] and [[4th parallel north|latitude 4°&nbsp;North]] and [[2nd parallel south|2°&nbsp;South]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Charles W. |date=1860 |via=[[University of Michigan]] libraries |url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/anu9136.0001.001 |title=Adventures and observations on the west coast of Africa, and its islands. Historical and descriptive sketches of Madeira, Canary, Biafra, and Cape Verd islands; their climates, inhabitants, and productions. Accounts of places, peoples, customs, trade, missionary operations, etc., on that part of the African coast lying between Tangier, Morocco, and Benguela, by Rev. Chas. W. Thomas ... with illustrations from original drawings.}}</ref>

=== Under independent Nigeria ===
In 1960, [[Nigeria]] became independent of the [[United Kingdom]]. As with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic, cultural, religious, or political boundaries. Thus, the northern region of the country has a [[Islam in Nigeria|Muslim]] majority, being primarily made up of territory of the indigenous [[Sokoto Caliphate]]. The southern population is predominantly [[Christianity in Nigeria|Christian]], being primarily made up of territory of the indigenous [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and Igbo states in the west and east respectively. Following independence, Nigeria was demarcated primarily along ethnic lines: a [[Hausa people|Hausa]] and [[Fula people|Fulani]] majority in the north, [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] majority in the West, and [[Igbo people|Igbo]] majority in the East.<ref name="BBC1">{{cite news |first=Barnaby |last=Philips |date=13 January 2000 |title=Biafra: Thirty years on |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm |access-date=1 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930041007/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm |archive-date=30 September 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ethnic tension had simmered in Nigeria during discussions of independence, but in the mid-twentieth century, ethnic and religious riots began to occur. In 1945 an ethnic riot<ref name=Plotnicov1971>{{cite journal |last=Plotnicov |first=Leonard |date=August 1971 |title=An Early Nigerian Civil Disturbance: The 1945 Hausa-Ibo riot in Jos |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=297–305 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X00024976 |issn=1469-7777 |jstor=159448 |s2cid=154565379  |postscript=;}} ''also cited as'' {{issn|0022-278X}}</ref> flared up in [[Jos]] in which Hausa-Fulani people targeted Igbo people and left many dead and wounded. Police and army units from Kaduna had to be brought in to restore order. A newspaper article describes the event:

<blockquote>At [[Jos]] in 1945, a sudden and savage attack by Northerners took the Easterners completely by surprise, and before the situation could be brought under control, the bodies of Eastern women, men, and children littered the streets and their property worth thousands of pounds reduced to shambles<ref name=Plotnicov1971/></blockquote>

Three thousand Igbo people were murdered in the Jos riots.<ref name="WWWN">{{cite web |title=What is wrong with Nigeria? |url=https://www.ipobinusa.org/what-is-wrong-with-nigeria |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329115655/https://www.ipobinusa.org/what-is-wrong-with-nigeria |archive-date=29 March 2019 |access-date=5 April 2019 |website=Indigenous People of Biafra USA |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1953 a similar riot occurred in [[Kano (city)|Kano]]. A decade later in 1964 and during the Western political crisis,<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Crisis and Conflict in the Western Region, 1962–63 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-08080-9_4 |title=Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria |year=1988 |last1=Diamond |first1=Larry |pages=93–130 |isbn=978-1-349-08082-3 }}{{full citation needed|date=August 2020}}</ref> the Western Region was divided as [[Samuel Akintola|Ladoke Akintola]] clashed with [[Obafemi Awolowo]]. Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy. Westerners especially resented the political domination of the Northern People's Congress, many of whose candidates ran unopposed in the election. Violence spread throughout the country, and some began to flee the North and West, some to [[Republic of Dahomey|Dahomey]]. The apparent domination of the political system by the North, and the chaos breaking out across the country, motivated elements within the military to consider decisive action. The federal government, dominated by Northern Nigeria, allowed the crisis to unfold with the intention of declaring a state of emergency and placing the Western Region under martial law. This administration of the Nigerian federal government was widely perceived to be corrupt.<ref>{{cite book |last=Njoku |first=Hilary M. |year=1987 |title=A Tragedy without Heroes: The Nigeria-Biafra war |publisher=Fourth Dimension |isbn=9789781562389 |language=en |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1wuAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> In January 1966, the situation reached a breaking point. A [[1966 Nigerian coup d'état|military coup occurred]] during which a mixed but predominantly Igbo group of army officers assassinated 30 political leaders, including Nigeria's Prime Minister, Sir [[Abubakar Tafawa Balewa]], and the Northern premier, Sir [[Ahmadu Bello]]. The four most senior officers of Northern origin were also killed. [[Nnamdi Azikiwe]], the President, of Igbo extraction, and the favoured Western Region politician [[Obafemi Awolowo]] were not killed. The commander of the army, [[Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi|General Aguiyi Ironsi]], seized power to maintain order.<ref name="Omoigui2">{{cite web |first=Nowa |last=Omoigui |title=Operation 'Aure': The northern military counter-rebellion of July&nbsp;1966 |website=Nigeria/Africa Masterweb |url=http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html |access-date=15 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723181411/http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html |archive-date=23 July 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Bozimo">{{cite web |first=Willy |last=Bozimo |title=Festus Samuel Okotie Eboh (1912–1966) |website=Niger Delta Congress |url=http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/farticles/festus_samuel_okotie_eboh.htm |access-date=17 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516163553/http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/farticles/festus_samuel_okotie_eboh.htm |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref><ref name="onlinenigeria">{{cite news |title=The last of the plotters dies |series=1966 Coup |date=20 March 2007 |website=OnlineNigeria.com |url=http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=9670&z=17 |access-date=18 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211013857/http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=9670&z=17 |archive-date=11 December 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In July 1966, northern officers and army units staged a countercoup, killing General Aguiyi Ironsi and several southern officers. The predominantly Muslim officers named a general from a small ethnic group (the Angas) in central Nigeria, General [[Yakubu Gowon|Yakubu "Jack" Gowon]], as the head of the Federal Military Government (FMG). The two coups deepened Nigeria's ethnic tensions. In September 1966, [[1966 anti-Igbo pogrom|approximately 30,000 Igbo civilians were killed and hundreds of thousand more maimed, had their properties confiscated and fled the north]], and some Northerners were expelled in backlashes in eastern cities.<ref name="onwar">{{cite web |title=Nigeria 1967–1970 |series=Biafran Secession |date=16 December 2000 |website=onwar.com |department=Armed Conflict Events Database |url=http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/bravo/biafra1967.htm |access-date=15 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905090002/http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/bravo/biafra1967.htm |archive-date=5 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In January 1967, the military leaders [[Yakubu Gowon|Yakubu "Jack" Gowon]], [[C. Odumegwu Ojukwu|Chukwuemeka Ojukwu]] and senior police officials of each region met in [[Aburi]] in Ghana and agreed on a less centralised union of regions. The Northerners were at odds with this agreement, known as the [[Aburi Accord]]s; [[Obafemi Awolowo]], the leader of the Western Region warned that if the Eastern Region seceded, the Western Region would also, which persuaded the northerners.<ref name="onwar"/>
{{Quote box|quote=Now, therefore, I, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles, recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters shall henceforth be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of "The Republic of Biafra".|source=[[Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu]]<ref>{{cite web |author-link=Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu |first=C.O. |last=Ojukwu |title=Ojukwu's ''Declaration of Biafra'' speech |website=Citizens for Nigeria |url=http://www.citizensfornigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=63 |access-date=15 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211171325/http://www.citizensfornigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=63 |archive-date=11 December 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref>|width=420px}}
After returning to Nigeria, the federal government reneged on the agreement and unilaterally declared the creation of several new states including some that [[Gerrymandering|gerrymandered]] the Igbos in Biafra.

=== Nigerian civil war ===
{{Main|Nigerian Civil War}}

On 26 May, Ojukwu decreed secession from Nigeria after consultations with community leaders from across the Eastern Region. Four days later, Ojukwu unilaterally declared the independence of the Republic of Biafra, citing the Igbos killed in the post-coup violence as reasons for the declaration of independence.<ref name="BBC1" /><ref name="onwar" /><ref>{{cite web |date=2 May 2014 |title=Republic of Biafra is born |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/pohick2/13969882488/in/set-72157644200924229 |access-date=11 May 2014 |series=Biafra Spotlight |publisher=Library of Congress Africa Pamphlet Collection |via=Flickr}}</ref> It is believed this was one of the major factors that sparked the war.<ref>{{cite news |date=2 March 2012 |title=Nigeria buries ex-Biafra leader |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17230673 |url-status=live |access-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618230633/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17230673 |archive-date=18 June 2018 |series=World News/Africa}}</ref> The large amount of oil in the region also created conflict, as oil was already becoming a major component of the Nigerian economy.<ref name="AU">{{cite web |date=November 1997 |title=ICE Case Studies |url=http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/biafra.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827020132/http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/biafra.htm |archive-date=27 August 2008 |access-date=16 August 2008 |series=TED |publisher=American University}}</ref> Biafra was ill-equipped for war, with fewer army personnel and less equipment than the Nigerian military, but had advantages over the Nigerian state as they were fighting in their homeland and had the support of most Biafrans.<ref name="Omoigui">{{cite web |last=Omoigui |first=Nowa |date=3 October 2007 |title=Nigerian Civil War file |url=http://www.dawodu.com/omoigui24.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928010636/http://www.dawodu.com/omoigui24.htm |archive-date=28 September 2007 |access-date=27 October 2007 |website=dawodu.com}}</ref>

The FMG attacked Biafra on 6 July 1967. Nigeria's initial efforts were unsuccessful; the Biafrans successfully launched their own offensive, and expansion efforts; occupying areas in the [[Mid-Western Region, Nigeria|mid-Western Region]] in August&nbsp;1967. This led to the creation of the [[Republic of Benin (1967)|Republic of Benin]], a short lived puppet state. However, with the support of the British, American and Soviet governments, Nigeria turned the tide of the war. By October&nbsp;1967, the FMG had regained the land after intense fighting.<ref name="onwar" /><ref name="BBC.On This Day">{{cite news |date=30 June 1969 |title=30 June |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_3733000/3733321.stm |url-status=live |access-date=1 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612035938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_3733000/3733321.stm |archive-date=12 June 2009 |series=On this Day}}</ref> In September&nbsp;1968, the federal army planned what Gowon described as the "final offensive". Initially, the final offensive was neutralised by Biafran troops. In the latter stages, a Southern FMG offensive managed to break through the fierce resistance.<ref name="onwar" />

Due to the proliferation of television and international news organizations, the war found a global audience. 1968 saw the images of malnourished and starving Biafran children reach the mass media of [[Western countries]] and led to [[Non-governmental organization|non-governmental organisations]] become involved to provide humanitarian aid, leading to the [[Biafran airlift]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daly |first1=Samuel Fury Childs |title=A history of the Republic of Biafra : law, crime, and the Nigerian Civil War |date=2020 |isbn=9781108887748 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom}}</ref>

After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (three-quarters of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total [[blockade]] of the region by the Nigerian government,<ref>{{cite news |last=Jacos |first=Dan |date=1 August 1987 |title=Lest we forget the starvation of Biafra |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/01/opinion/l-lest-we-forget-the-starvation-of-biafra-462487.html |access-date=26 March 2020 |issn=0362-4331 |series=Opinion}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=eribake |first=akintayo |date=14 January 2016 |title=50 yrs after January 15 1966 coup: Excerpts of Major Nzeogwu's coup speech |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/50-yrs-after-january-15-1966-coup-excerpts-of-major-nzeogwus-coup-speech/ |access-date=9 November 2022 |website=Vanguard News |language=en-GB}}</ref> Biafran forces under Nigeria's motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished" surrendered to the [[Military dictatorship in Nigeria|Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG)]]. The surrender was facilitated by the Biafran Vice President and Chief of General Staff, Major General [[Philip Effiong]], who assumed leadership of the Republic of Biafra after the first President, Colonel [[C. Odumegwu Ojukwu|Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu]], fled to [[Ivory Coast]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Philips |first=Barnaby |date=13 January 2000 |title=Biafra: Thirty years on |website=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/596712.stm |url-status=live |access-date=9 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215145053/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm |archive-date=15 December 2013}}</ref> After the surrender of Biafrans, some Igbos who had fled the conflict returned to their properties but were unable to claim them back from new occupants. This became law in the Abandoned Properties Act (28&nbsp;September 1979).<ref>{{cite book |last=Mwalimu |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ADV5PRO7_8AC&q=nigeria+abandoned+property+act+1979&pg=PA384 |title=The Nigerian Legal System |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2005 |isbn=9780820471266 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> It was purported that at the start of the civil war, Igbos withdrew their funds from Nigerian banks and converted it to the Biafran currency. After the war, bank accounts owned by Biafrans were seized and a Nigerian panel resolved to give every Igbo person an account with only 20&nbsp;pounds.<ref>{{cite news |last=Made |first=Alexsa |date=9 January 2013 |title=Group sues FG over abandoned property, others |language=en-US |website=Vanguard News, Nigeria |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/biafra-group-sues-fg-over-abandoned-property-others/ |url-status=dead |access-date=5 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326074224/http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/biafra-group-sues-fg-over-abandoned-property-others/ |archive-date=26 March 2013 |series=Biafra}}</ref> Federal projects in Biafra were also greatly reduced compared to other parts of Nigeria.<ref name="WWWN" /> In an Intersociety study it was found that Nigerian security forces also extorted approximately $100&nbsp;million per year from illegal roadblocks and other methods from [[Igboland]] – a cultural sub-region of Biafra in what is now southern Nigeria, causing the Igbo citizenry to trust the Nigerian security forces even less than before.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nigeria security forces extort N100&nbsp;billion in Southeast in three years |url=https://www.ipobinusa.org/news-blog/2019/4/6/nigeria-security-forces-extort-n100-billion-in-southeast-in-three-years |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425225040/https://www.ipobinusa.org/news-blog/2019/4/6/nigeria-security-forces-extort-n100-billion-in-southeast-in-three-years |archive-date=25 April 2019 |access-date=25 April 2019 |website=Indigenous People of Biafra USA |language=en-US}}</ref>