The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, broke out on July 6, 1967. The conflict was the culmination of deep-seated ethnic tensions, economic disparities, and political instability that had plagued the country since independence.
Following the 1966 coups and the subsequent massacre of Igbos in the North, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military governor of the Eastern Region, declared the region’s secession from Nigeria as the independent Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967.
The federal government, led by General Yakubu Gowon, refused to recognize the secession and launched a “police action” to bring the region back into the federation. What was expected to be a short conflict turned into a brutal three-year war that resulted in millions of deaths, mostly from starvation due to a blockade of the Biafran enclave.