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Thursday, 13 January, 2000, 07:04 GMT
Biafra: Thirty years on
The Ibo took up arms after years of ethnic friction
By Nigeria correspondent Barnaby Philips
It is 30 years since the end of one of post-independence Africa's first and most bloody wars.
The Nigerian civil war not only came close to tearing Africa's most populous country apart, it also provoked passions in many other parts of the world, particularly in Britain, the former colonial power.
Nigeria became independent in 1960. Like most ex-colonies in the continent, its boundaries had been defined quite arbitrarily to demarcate where the competing claims of the imperial powers collided.
Consequently Nigeria was composed of semi-autonomous Muslim feudal states in the desert north, and once-powerful Christian and animist kingdoms in the south and east, which was where the country's only significant source of income - oil - was exploited.
Ethnic split
At independence, Nigeria had a federal constitution comprising three regions defined by the principal ethnic groups in the country - the Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, and Ibo in the south-east.
The fighting led to famine and chaos
But as the military took over in the mid-1960s, and the economic situation worsened, ethnic tensions broke out.
Up to 30,000 Ibos were killed in fighting with Hausas, and around 1million refugees fled to their Ibo homeland in the east.
On 30 May, 1967, the head of the Eastern Region, Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, unilaterally declared the independent Republic of Biafra.
After initial military gains, the Biafran forces were pushed back.
...cont....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm
Biafra: Thirty years on
By Nigeria correspondent Barnaby Philips
It is 30 years since the end of one of post-independence Africa's first and most bloody wars.
The Nigerian civil war not only came close to tearing Africa's most populous country apart, it also provoked passions in many other parts of the world, particularly in Britain, the former colonial power.
Nigeria became independent in 1960. Like most ex-colonies in the continent, its boundaries had been defined quite arbitrarily to demarcate where the competing claims of the imperial powers collided.
Consequently Nigeria was composed of semi-autonomous Muslim feudal states in the desert north, and once-powerful Christian and animist kingdoms in the south and east, which was where the country's only significant source of income - oil - was exploited.
Ethnic split
At independence, Nigeria had a federal constitution comprising three regions defined by the principal ethnic groups in the country - the Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, and Ibo in the south-east.
But as the military took over in the mid-1960s, and the economic situation worsened, ethnic tensions broke out.
Up to 30,000 Ibos were killed in fighting with Hausas, and around 1million refugees fled to their Ibo homeland in the east.
On 30 May, 1967, the head of the Eastern Region, Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, unilaterally declared the independent Republic of Biafra.
After initial military gains, the Biafran forces were pushed back.
...cont....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm