The Nigerian Civil War

The Nigerian Civil War, also called the Biafran War, was fought between Nigeria and the secessionist Republic of Biafra from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970 (Wikipedia). Yakubu Gowon led the federal government and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu led Biafra.

According to the Library of Congress country study, federal forces had regained the Midwestern Region and secured the Delta by the end of 1967, cutting Biafra off from the sea. Owerri was captured in September 1968; the federal army, grown to nearly 250,000 men, opened three fronts in 1969. When Owerri fell on 6 January 1970, Biafran resistance collapsed; Ojukwu left for Côte d'Ivoire, and his chief of staff, Philip Effiong, called for a ceasefire and surrendered to the federal government. Wikipedia records that a blockade of Biafra led to mass starvation, and that images of starving children made the war an international cause and led to a large humanitarian airlift.

The war grew out of the political crisis of the First Republic and the coups of 1966. According to Wikipedia, its immediate causes were the January coup, the July counter-coup and the killings of Igbo in the Northern Region, after which the Eastern leadership concluded that the federal government was unwilling or unable to protect its people. The Library of Congress country study records that talks at Aburi failed, that the federal government announced a twelve-state structure, and that Biafra was proclaimed on 30 May 1967.

Estimates of the dead differ widely. The country study gives between 1 million and 3 million deaths in the former Eastern Region from fighting, disease and starvation; Wikipedia gives about 100,000 military deaths and between 500,000 and 2 million civilian deaths from starvation. At the end of the war, more than 3 million Igbo refugees were crowded into a small enclave (country study).