Stella Dimoko Korkus.com: Five Little-Known Facts About The Nigerian Civil War

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Friday, September 15, 2017

Five Little-Known Facts About The Nigerian Civil War

The days between July 6, 1967, and January 15, 1970, have gone down as perhaps the most indicative period in Nigeria's history.



biafra war (asknaija.com)
Over the course of 2 years, 6 months and some days, the federal government fought to keep the secessionist South-East (or the “Republic of Biafra”) and cut short the nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people.

Most of the events that happened are now popular history. However, the sensitivity of the topic and the passage of time have buried some information about the war that changed Nigeria.

Here are some little-known facts about the Nigerian Civil War.


(1) Neither side expected the war to drag on for so long.


After Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967, the Federal Government was satisfied with simply placing an embargo on the South-East, blocking shipping to and from the region.

Even when the situation escalated to war, both sides were reluctant to commit to a full-blown war.

In the weeks before, Ojukwu had famously warned that if the Federal government decided to object the secession of Biafra, it would find that the republic was more prepared than was expected.

Unfortunately, that insistence led to over two years of war and the deaths of about two million people.



(2) Minorities in the secessionist Biafra suffered atrocities and impulsive pogroms at the hands of both sides during the war.


As the Federal troops advanced towards the Biafran capital, troops loyal to Ojukwu killed many young men in the South-South on the suspicion that they worked for the Nigerian army.

The Federal government also proved to be no different. High-flying jets provided by Russia bombed civilian areas in Biafra. Over 2000 Efiks were killed in Calabar.

Federal government troops also perpetrated the Asaba massacre, where over 700 young men were shot dead in full view of their families and their community.



(3) The Yoruba Biafran: Few people know about Lt. Col. Victor Banjo, a Nigerian soldier of Yoruba extraction who fought on the Biafran side until his death in September 1967.

Banjo was a victim of circumstance, more than anything else. Three days after Aguiyi-Ironsi took power, he was accused of trying to kill the new head of state, arrested and detained.


He spent the next year or so being transferred to various prisons. When the Civil war broke out, Ojukwu released Banjo from a prison in the South-East and made him a colonel in the Biafran army.

Banjo was an astute military mind, winning major battles for Biafra.

Things took another sad turn when Banjo was accused of planning a coup against Ojukwu; alongside Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Phillip Alale, he was taken to the Enugu city centre, tied to a pole and shot.




(4) Other nations played an important part in the war. When a secessionist state declares its independence, its first battle is the struggle for legitimacy.


When it was declared on May 30, 1967, only five nations (Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire) acknowledged the tiny nation of Biafra.

In the hardest months of the war, when weapons and aid became valuable currencies, both sides got help from foreign interests.

The Federal government received support from the United Kingdom, (desperate to secure the unity of the project it had started), the United States, Egypt, Syria, Algeria and Russia, which mostly gave weapons and aircraft.

The United Kingdom tried to play both sides by sending aid to Biafra, which was also supported by South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Israel, Portugal, Spain and France (which sent heavy caches of weapons through neighbouring Gabon)




(5) 40 years before Mohammed Bouazizi ignited the Arab Spring, a young American student set himself on fire to protest the atrocities committed against Biafra during the civil war



According to the Columbia Daily Spectator, dated 3 June 1969, Bruce Mayrock, a 20-year-old student at the School of General Studies and a sports photographer for the Columbia Daily Spectator, died after setting himself on fire in front of the United Nations to protest the war.

Mayrock’s self-immolation was only one in a number of reactions to the humanitarian disasters of the Nigerian civil war.

from pulseng.



*Nigeria does not need another civil war!!!!

64 comments:

  1. Nigeria is in way already, not only from Biafra side but from many angles




    *Larry was here*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What about after the war. The stupid Yakubu Gown still used starvation to kill more children and women. Stopped relief items that were sent in by other countries. Cut off the nipple of breasts feeding mothers and other rubbish they did. The truth is that Nigeria with the whole world power behind them culdnt stop one man for almost 3 years. Isn't that a shame? If Biafran had people like Ojukwu in 5 places. The story would have been different.
      That being said, Nnamdi kanu does not even have an iota of military intelligence. Ojukwu today Is a case study in the UK military. Nnamdi kanu is just looking for fame and has no single Liver to even lead anyone to war of sticks or pillow fights let alone real war.

      BTW ISRAEL WAS ON THE SIDE OF BIAFRA. UK fighting both ways so that they can come back to colonise. America must put mouth anywhere wey oil dey.

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  2. We don't need another civil war at all

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  3. Replies
    1. They want history to repeat itself then later they will be forming victims.

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    2. You will not learn. Nobody wants war, igbos included. All we want is a referendum in the old eastern region of 1963.

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    3. You are the problem. Your comment says it all. 'They' as though Igbos re not marginalised Nigerians.

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    4. Anon 13.08 u are a foolv u tink south south will stay unda biafra with their oil so that u will opress them worse than the north is doing now. Greedy igbos u cant do biz with them without being cheated.

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  4. Amen n looking at the development with my mouth shut

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  5. Where are the activists?? Read this with your eyes and brain... Nigeria doesn't need another war

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  6. Some of these guys need to read this,I pray there won't be war d second time. I heard dat den ojukwu flew his family abroad, dat would be d case of dis nnamdi kanu if God forbid such happens.

    I was watching hotel Rwanda n was shedding tears. God let us not witness anything like war in this country ever again.

    Wow,Bruce mayrock,dat was really so brave of you..continue to RIP

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    1. Arrest kanu now and damn the consequences, lock him up and let him rot in jail.
      He needs to spend like 20 years there so he can know the difference between 5 and 6.
      His so called followers should be tamed like the animals they are. Arrest all of them and shoot whoever resists arrest on the leg.
      Buhari wake up and deal with these people.

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    2. Anony 12:56, chop knuckles! The animal should be castrated and drowned. And yes, I am from Mba5.

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    3. Not true at all. Ikemba's family were in the East with majority participating in the fight for freedom.

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    4. Which Buhari? Jubril is on his way out of the country oh. He will make a stop in London.

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  7. Replies
    1. Nne eh!! War that almost took ma mommas life. I for no come this sweet/sour world be that.😉😂 She has d mark of d stray bullet that hit her thighs till tomorrow. God forbid for such to repeat itself. Olekwa!!!

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  8. And with these,some blockheads are still advocating for Biafra. God help Nigerian citizens

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    Replies
    1. The discussion on ground should be why people are agitating for cessation? If nothing is wrong they wouldn't be. So people please let's have a truthful dialogue and not all the fear mongering.

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    2. Go and talk to your preventatives in the house of assembly. Hold your leaders accountable, if you can start from there not by creating biafra secret Santa and spreading hate speech against others.

      You can't anything without going through the right channel. President and the people of this country are not your enemy, take your war to the doorstep of your elders.

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    3. Senseless ingrates kawaii. Do they even know what war looks like? Even for movies alone ma sef the war scenes go dey do persin one way like that not to even reason it happening live. Biko God forbid. Unity is all we need in this country jor

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  9. Number 3 is hard to believe, Yorubas are sly and have cowardice engraved in their DNA.
    Nigeria is doomed whichever we look at it, we can bury our head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend that everything is A okay.
    Na una sabi, me I believe that this country called Nigeria has served it's purpose and its just a matter of time before we bid it farewell!
    Stella this is not hate speech oh,

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    Replies
    1. Your brain is filled with bama butter. You stays in Lagos asking for biafra. That's shows that some of you are not normal.

      Start what you can finish and watch the war confined in South east.
      I pity the innocent people that will be at the cross fore not you guys following one fool blindly.

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    2. Yoruba are sly, despite a plethora of evidence that some Yoruba's supported Biafra, a case in Point is this Banjo, even Wole Soyinka was jailed for supporting Biafra. It is this your type of arrogance that keep getting you Igbo people into trouble.always thinking the worst of other tribes. Shior.

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    3. Yorubas are sly but your Kanu that is not sly has fingered your dumb brains and gone into hiding.Lives have been lost, properties destroyed !!

      He is expected to be in the forefront and leading this cause?? But he chose to hide, if this is not cowardice , tell me what it is.

      Please tell us where he and his family members are otherwise shut up and go and embrace Lucipher, bloody lowlife.

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    4. Butter abi sawdust!! This one na person ?? Idiots whose brains are on exile. Go and read J. P Clarke's the casualties so that you can receive sense.

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    5. why are you people shouting? arutu nwanyi nga oji ya hahaha. FYI Don the dumbf**k i don't reside in lagos, and have no intent to

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    6. Ps the rest are just "Anon" like me so you don't matter

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    7. Thank God you know you are irrelevant and a scoundrel, bloody chicken with no feathers at 13.35pm.

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  10. We dont need war but ignorant people are seriously beating the drums of war..All I know is ''you can know the beginning of war but never the end of it'' most times ''no victor, no vanquished''

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    1. But those seeking cessation have not asked for war!!!!!!

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  11. These facts has succeeded in adding to my fears. I don't want war oo. Ndi biafra. Please oo. I never marry talk less to born pikin. Biko oo

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  12. Blocked shipping.
    How was aid sent to Biafra?

    "atrocities committed against the tiny Biafra"
    This just made me sad.

    There is nothing on that small village in Abia State that was totally wiped out by the Nigerian Army just after the war ended.

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  13. Hmmm. Amazing how the most important fact that is the reasons behind the seccession is always excluded in the so called history of the Nigerian civil war! Ps. I'm talking about the massive Genocide, millitary and counter coup, control over oil in the Niger delta! Surprising that these facts are even ON WIKIPEDIA, Google is everyone's friend! but they are never mentioned......stella, did you know pregnant ibo women were cut open and their foetus removed from their womb by the northerners during the war? The first time i saw this was in a movie i saw in the US, that enacted the civil war, i was shook", called my mum to confirm this n she did, and she said the nipples of breast feeding mothers were cut off! So many atrocities done against the ibos then were swept under the carpet in our so called Nigerian history! Reason half of a yellow sun was edited over n over again, hence it didnt scratch the surface. Mtschew. I'm tired biko, can't even type an epistle. #neveragain #thetruth #saynotoviolenceandwar #knowyourhistory #read!

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    Replies
    1. Exactly!!! Thank you for using your brain. The war mongering has to end.

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  14. I think we all need this constant reminder of the civil war history, for those of us that were not born during the civil war, history should be a wake up call.
    There are no winners after a war, enough said.

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  15. Those suspects being accused of espionage where called 'sabo'. Sabo is the short form of saboteur. Many innocent people who survived the war were killed owing to false accusations. The atrocities committed by biafrans against their own brothers isn't tale worthy. A country filled with carnivores. This is what a greedy, unintelligent man wants to revive at the expense of directionless youths. Does anyone even remember those who are still bearing the scars gotten from this war? Those whose family tree have been cut down forever? Those who lost everything they worked for? Those who have been silenced forever? Biafra is dead and must remain in its grave!

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  16. President Buhari went to war and controlled a battalion. He will rather have the trouble makers killed than watch Nigeria divided.
    He's not a man that can be intimidated or push around, drop the biafra idea before its too late or go about it through the right channel.
    Enough said.

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    Replies
    1. Presidents Buhari's 1st son. Oshe!!! Your hate for igbos will kill and bury you this cowardly idiot. See you running your dirty mouth.

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  17. Say no to War!!! I love my peace oo.

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  18. Lord have mercy, we don't want to experience war again

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  19. God will give us biafra. Buhari will never go unpunished. Amen

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    Replies
    1. Why didn't you clamour for Biafra during Jonathan's regime? Unserious lots.

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  20. Nigeria is a fraud. How will u continue to kill a set of people the ibos u exclude them and u still want them in a country of deceit. Shame on you all God will surprise you people. Amen

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  21. Nigeria is a fraud. How will u continue to kill a set of people the ibos u exclude them and u still want them in a country of deceit. Shame on you all God will surprise you people. Amen

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    Replies
    1. See ehn , Go stand in front of Channels tv, spray petrol on your body, strike a stick of match, then burn Urself to death to prove to us you are serious about Biafraud. Loathsome idiot!

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  22. The Hausa/Fulani that claims they are "Born to Rule" knows that the only obstacle they have is the Igbo tribe, anyi wu nu atakata elo, chewing gum. every other tribe, they can easily subdue, so their sole aim is to annihilate the threat and actualize their agenda ma na chukwu okiki abiama is on our side. everyone should calm down, for this particular war will not be fought with guns.
    One Nigeria my left behind, see the oil dry up and watch the same people fighting for "Oneness" to start agitating for referendum

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    Replies
    1. Yimu.. Be there deceiving your entire linage

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  23. "Ndi be any si na ijiji na enwero nti na eso ozu ala na ini" A word is enough for the wise. Adighi eji ife ana agba na nti agba na anya. Nnandi Kanu has succeed in dragging ndi Igbo to the public. He refused to listen to the words of elders which includes Late Ojukwu, Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, SE Governors, SE Senators and what have you? His hate speeches is nothing to write home about. Ojukwu that led the Biafran war knew what he passed through and I believe the blood of innocent ones like my Aunt's and Uncles that died during the civil war will be crying calling those agitating for war to stop. It is only a useless man or woman that will follow Nnamdi Kanu and believe in what he is saying. In a protest held in London during GEJ administration, the same Nnamdi kanu preached one Nigeria. If you doubt me kindly refer to this video on Youtube...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=43&v=mlKqSJeHgRo

    Imagine how time flies that Nnamdi Kanu who was busy preaching against the killing of Nigerian's in the north by BH is now agitating to divide Nigeria. Few months ago, he formed Biafran Secret Service, recruiting jobless hungry looking hoodlums and parading them upandan like a General. All of us in this blog including myself were laughing at his gesture calling him a clown thinking he was joking but we forgot that this is how BH and insurgency started in North. In as much as no one is supporting what the Nigerian Army is doing in SE or what IPOB members are doing. We should focus on which way Nigeria and call on the APC led Federal government as a matter of urgency to restructure Nigeria. All states should go back to control their revenue lets stop the feeding bottle politics whereby at the end of the month we gather to share money. Nigeria is so blessed that the 36 states can stand on its own. I call on all umu afo Igbo in SE to embrace peace and go about their daily businesses. I also commend the sense of maturity which is currently exhibited in North during this crises and I call on Northerners to resist any form of violence against Igbo living in North. It shall be well with Nigeria. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN PEACE & UNITED

    GOD BLESS NIGERIA!!!

    Thanks for sharing this Madam Stella

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    Replies
    1. Commend which Northerners. All the times they have been killing Christians (mainly igbos) over there what has happened to them? They have learnt now that everyone is ready after what Christians did to them during Obasanjos regime in Kaduna.
      I am not for The Lunatic Kanu but the North itself contributes immensely to the issue of lunatics like Kanu deceiving gullible people. I also don't believe that Nigeria has ever been 1 and will never be. In all, it is better that we just live and accommodate and respect one another.

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  24. Abeg war is bad o. Say no to war. The aftermath is terrible. Can't we all just get along?! Jeez!

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  25. But why does the Yorubas and Hausas including the so called minority tribe of south south and north central hate the Ibos so much and still want them to remain in Nigeria? I don't understand how a person can be all these bad to you and you are hell bent on keeping them! The truth is that they are not bad, you lots are sacred of how much capabilities they have to advance in life faster. You fear their intelligence and doggedness, you need their economic prowess, you understand that they are survivor. You marvel at how constantly you oppress them and yet they rise. You hate that they are what you would wish to be but can't. So you resort to oppression and calumny. These so called ibos that are your problem have tabled their reasons for seccession BUT you Yorubas and Hausas have failed to state TRUTHFULLY WHY you do not want them to seceded. They are your greatest nightmare. They people you love to have. Every evil in Nigeria you blame them for. Yet you desire not to let them go so they can at least stop soiling your name Nigeria. Your inferiority complex, superiority complex and insecurities stinks! I am yet to see an ibo person sweat over an Arewa or an Oduduwa cause for freedom or even the mention of it! But mention Biafra people like ethnic bigot Don and his likes start shitting in their pants! Biafra is not calling for war! They one who ask to please let me go desire no war! It is he who says no, you must remain with me that SEEks war! Your hypocrisy, fear mongering and reverse psychology and your Blantant lies is Very clear!
    Stella you may not want to post this but at least you will read it!

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    Replies
    1. Go and take your meds, you are highly delusional.

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    2. Nobody hate igbo, some of you just don't like the truth. How can you claim that everybody hate you, ask yourself what is it you are doing wrong.
      Like the man up there said, you are delusional. Wake up and take your drugs.

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    3. Thank you.yes they are you've really studied them and you have them around you. They keep thinking and talking about others. Tribal bigots

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    4. Yes I have asked that Don and the answer is simple, let them have their Biafra since they are bad people! In your words everyone hates them cos they are bad people, something is wrong with them, so why are you refusing the one whom something is wrong with GO? You think the ibo man is problematic yet you are against them having their own country. Don't you see you are the one deluded and sick?


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  26. And what truth do we not like if I may ask! You mean your blantant dishonesty? How many times have you Yorubas criticized the constant massacre or ibos in the north? where is the Yoruba outrage on the Fulani carnage in ibo land? I am not afraid to call it as it is, you lots enjoy seeing the ibo man oppressed cos of your inferiority complex and your false sense of superiority. You fear the northern hegemony over your tribe should the ibos become free. Your hypocrisy stinks. Let's even assume that you do not hate the ibos why are you forcing them in a marriage with you that they have expressly and clearly said they do not desire anymore! Of course there is no other reason other than your loathsomeness borne out of false sense of superiority, envy, inferiority complex and fear of occupation by the northern hegemony!

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