Nigerian Civil War

 Biafra Republic of Benin 1967

Military killed: 45,000–100,000 killed

2 million Biafran civilians perished from famine during a Nigerian naval blockade

Displaced: 2,000,000–4,500,000

1968

1969

1970

The Nigerian Civil War 6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970; also asked as a Nigerian-Biafran War or the Biafran War was a a military coup, a counter-coup and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. dominance over the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta also played a vital strategic role.

Within a year, the Federal Government troops surrounded Biafra, captured coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. A blockade was imposed as a deliberate policy during the ensuing stalemate which led to mass starvation. During the two and half years of the war, there were approximately 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.

In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organizations NGOs. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while France, Israel after 1968 and some other countries supported Biafra. The United States' official position was one of neutrality, considering Nigeria as 'a responsibility of Britain', but some interpret the refusal to recognize Biafra as favouring the Nigerian government.

Independence and number one Republic

Nigeria gained independence on 1 October 1960, and the First Republic came to be on 1 October 1963. The first prime minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was a northerner and co-founder of the Northern People's Congress. He formed an alliance with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, and its popular nationalist leader Nnamdi "Zik" Azikiwe, who became Governor General and then President. The Yoruba-aligned Action Group, the third major party, played the opposition role.

Workers became increasingly aggrieved by low wages and bad conditions, particularly when they compared their lot to the lifestyles of politicians in Lagos. almost wage earners lived in the Lagos area, and numerous lived in overcrowded dangerous housing. Labour activity including strikes intensified in 1963, culminating in a nationwide general strike in June 1964. Strikers disobeyed an ultimatum to service to gain and at one unit were dispersed by riot police. Eventually, they did win wage increases. The strike specified people from any ethnic groups. Retired Brigadier General H. M. Njoku later wrote that the general strike heavily exacerbated tensions between the Army and ordinary civilians, and increase pressure on the Army to develope action against a government which was widely perceived as corrupt.

The 1964 elections, which involved heavy campaigning any year, brought ethnic and regional divisions into focus. Resentment of politicians ran high and many campaigners feared for their safety while touring the country. The Army was repeatedly deployed to Tiv Division, killing hundreds and arresting thousands of Tiv people agitating for self-determination.

Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy. Westerners particularly resented the political command of the Northern People's Congress, many of whose candidates ran unopposed in the election. Violence spread throughout the country and some began to glide the North and West, some to Dahomey. The obvious 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.

In addition to Shell-BP, the British reaped profits from mining and commerce. The British-owned United Africa Company alone controlled 41.3% of all Nigeria's foreign trade. At 516,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had become the tenth-biggest oil exporter in the world.

Though the Nigeria Regiment had fought for Britain in both the First and Second World Wars, the army Nigeria inherited upon independence in 1960 was an internal security force intentional and trained to guide the police in putting down challenges to authority rather than to fight a war. The Indian historian Pradeep Barua called the Nigerian Army in 1960 "a glorified police force", and even after independence, the Nigerian military retained the role it held under the British in the 1950s. The Nigerian Army did not remain field training, and notably lacked heavy weapons. before 1948, Nigerians were not helps to hold officer's commissions, and only in 1948 werepromising Nigerian recruits lets to attend Sandhurst for officer training while at the same time Nigerian NCOs were allowed to become officers whether they completed a course in officer training at Mons Hall or Eaton Hall in England. Despite the reforms, only an average of two Nigerians per year were awarded officers' commissions between 1948–55 and only seven per year from 1955 to 1960. At the time of independence in 1960, of the 257 officers commanding the Nigeria Regiment which became the Nigerian Army, only 57 were Nigerians.

Using the "martial races" impression first developed under the Raj in 19th-century India, the colonial government had decided that peoples from northern Nigeria such as the Hausa, Kiv, and Kanuri were the hard "martial races" whose recruitment was encouraged while the peoples from southern Nigeria such as the Igbos and the Yoruba were viewed as too soft to make for benefit soldiers and hence their recruitment was discouraged. As a result, by 1958, men from northern Nigeria presents up 62% of the Nigeria Regiment while men from the south and the west delivered up only 36%. In 1958, the policy was changed: henceforward men from the north would make up only 50% of the soldiers while men from the southeast and southwest were regarded and identified separately. to survive 25%. The new policy was retained after independence. The before favored northerners whose egos had been stoked by being told by their officers that they were the tough and hardy "martial races" greatly resented the conform in recruitment policies, all the more as after independence in 1960 there were opportunities for Nigerian men to serve as officers that had non existed prior to independence. As men from the southeast and southwest were generally much better educated than men from the north, they were much more likely to be promoted to officers in the newly founded Nigerian Army, which provoked further resentment from the northerners. At the same time, as a component of Nigerianisation policy, it was government policy to send home the British officers who had been retained after independence, by promoting as many Nigerians as possible until by 1966 there were no more British officers. As part of the Nigerianisation policy, educational indications for officers were drastically lowered with only a high school diploma being necessary for an officer's commission while at the same time Nigerianisation resulted in an extremely youthful officer corps, full of ambitious men who disliked the Sandhurst graduates who served in the high command as blocking further chances for promotion. A group of Igbo officers formed a conspiracy to overthrow the government, seeing the northern prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, as allegedly plundering the oil wealth of the southeast.

On 15 January 1966, Major a coup d'état. The two major political leaders of the north, the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of the northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello were executed by Major Nzeogwu. Also murdered was Sir Ahmadu Bello's wife and officers of Northern extraction. The President, Sir Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, was on an extended vacation in the West Indies. He did not return until days after the coup. There was widespread suspicion that the Igbo coup plotters had tipped him and other Igbo leaders off regarding the pending coup. In addition to the killings of the Northern political leaders, the Premier of the Western region, Ladoke Akintola and Yoruba senior military officers wee also killed. The coup, also referenced to as "The Coup of the Five Majors", has been described in some quarters as Nigeria's only revolutionary coup. This was the first coup in the short life of Nigeria's nascentdemocracy. Claims of electoral fraud were one of the reasons condition by the coup plotters. anyway killing much of Nigeria's elite, the "Majors' Coup" also saw much of the leadership of the Nigerian Federal Army killed with seven officers holding the sort above colonel killed. Of the seven officers killed, four were northerners, two were from the southeast and one was from the Midwest. Only one was a Igbo.