The Nigerian Civil War And The Biafran Famine
- Date
- 1967–1970
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970) pitted the federal government against the secessionist Republic of Biafra and produced one of the twentieth century's deadliest famines.
After two 1966 coups and pogroms drove roughly a million Igbo back to the south-east, the region declared independence as Biafra on 30 May 1967. Federal forces imposed a land, sea, and air blockade that starved the enclave; images of emaciated children with distended bellies reached television audiences worldwide and helped launch modern humanitarian NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières. Estimates of the dead range from 500,000 to over two million, the overwhelming majority civilians killed by starvation rather than combat. Biafra surrendered after thirty months, and the federal government's conciliatory "no victor, no vanquished" policy avoided mass reprisals. The war reshaped debates over the ethics of famine relief, arms sales, and sovereignty, and left enduring fractures in Nigerian politics. It also marked one of the first conflicts in which suffering was broadcast globally in near real time, mobilising an unprecedented transnational aid response.
One piece of history in your inbox, weekly
New empires, events and features as they land — one good email a week. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Empires active in 1967–1970
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE – 1975 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Cuban Missile Crisis16–28 October 1962
- Fall of Saigon and reunification of Vietnam30 April 1975 (reunified 1976)
- Khmer Rouge Seize Cambodia and Declare Year Zero1975
- Korean War25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953
- Creation of Israel and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War14 May 1948 (war May 1948 – July 1949)
- The Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi7 April – 19 July 1994
Further reading
The wider story
The Ethiopians: A History
Standard general history of Ethiopia and its dynasties.
Get it on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.