Nchamere Nd'Igbo: The Pogrom, War And Starvation: Evidence Of Anti-Igbo Pogrom

Biafran refugees bury 3 year-old leke wrapped in cloth. The boy died from famine in this refugee camp after his mother had carried him moreb than 100 miles. photo by Kurt Strumpf, 1968.

Les Archer, a British construction worker, holds the hand of a starving Biafran refugee child, one of an estimated 600 Igbo children at the tiny Niger Maternity Home in Port Harcourt January 22, 1970. Photograph by Dennis Lee Royle

Senator Edward Kennedy chats with Rene Cassin, Nobel Peace Prize winner, at a dinner of the International League for the Right of Man at the New York Hilton Hotel on December 6, 1968. In an address before the league which marked its 25th anniversary, Kennedy called for massive American assistance to the starving Biafrans. He said President Lyndon Johnson should name a special representative to oversee Biafran relief, and that the  United States "should use the tools of diplomatic leadership to achieve a ceasefire on the Biafra-Nigeria war, and bring about a peace conference. In September 1968, Kennedy had said the starvation among Biafra, a breakaway republic from Nigeria, was costing more than 7,000 lives a day while the United States government stood paralyzed. However, the Johnson administration did not react. The Nixon administration did, sending refugee coordinators and substantial quantities of food. Image: David Pickoff/Associated Press.

Dr. William Abiodun Duyile International Journal Of Naval History Introduction The principal actors in the Nigerian Civil War can be referred to as the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of Major General Yakubu Gowon on the part of Nigeria. The Biafra side was headed by Lt Colonel Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu. Although the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) now renamed the African Union (AU) was solidly behind the Federal government, yet, four African states; Tanzania, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zambia recognized Ojukwu’s regime in 1968. No European country actually accorded diplomatic recognition to Ojukwu’s regime, yet many of them were sympathetic to Biafra. This was as a result of well- tailored propaganda which he skilfully fed the European and United States of America press. On the side of the Federal Government of Nigeria, only Britain under the Labour Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, supported the stand of the Federal military government openly. Opinion was...

QUAKERS IN THE WORLD In 1967, following communal violence, an area of Eastern Nigeria calling itself Biafra, sought independence. In the civil war that followed (1967-1970), the area was cut off from the rest of the world and its population suffered starvation. Three Quakers, Adam Curle , John Volkmar and Walter Martin, took part in mediation with the leaders on both sides. The American Friends Service Committee also ran relief programmes, led by Kale Williams. Quaker involvement in Nigeria began shortly after the country gained independence in 1960. Paul and Priscilla Blanshard went as Quaker International Affairs Representatives for the AFSC. They reported on the tensions within the country and proposed a Quaker sponsored programme to strengthen relationships between different communities. In 1967, Volkmar reported on the murder and displacement of Ibo people in the Eastern Region and stated that, “Fear is the main stumbling block to reconciling Nigeria’s problems...

BY MARK CURTIS The formerly secret files on the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s show very clear British complicity in the Nigerian government’s aggression against the region of Biafra, where an independence movement was struggling to secede from Nigeria. This brutal civil war resulted in between one and three million deaths; it also significantly helped shape modern Nigeria, and not least the division of oil revenues between the central government and the regions and people. Background to civil war For those in Britain old enough to remember the war in Nigeria in the late 1960s, ‘Biafra’ probably still conjures up images of starving children – the result of the blockade imposed by the Nigerian government in Lagos to defeat the secession of the eastern region, Biafra. For Biafrans themselves, the period was one of immense suffering – it is still not known how many died at this time as a direct result of the war and the blockade, but it is believed to be at least one million and ...