BIAFRA: THE OUTBREAK OF NIGERIA-BIAFRA WAR AND THE FAMINE CONDITIONS

Author:       Chinonso Igwebuike mbah

Editor:        Nwada Ugochinyere 

No doubt, the Nigeria/Biafra war was as a result of the high rate of injustice, marginalization and ill human degrading treatments against Biafrans. The outburst of this genocidal war is not far-fetched, this we shall see below this article. It’s concrete because Biafrans were the real targets.

The old Eastern region known today as South East and South-south proclaimed itself the "Republic of Biafra" on May 30th 1967 by the Governor of the Region Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu following a result of a particular ethnic group from the Region attempting to protect themselves from a great violence that has been organized and executed by Arms of the government of Nigeria. 

There was a strong indication that Nigeria was no longer habitable for them and many other people from the Eastern part of Nigeria, a country which they wholeheartedly embraced to be part of; only to realise that it was not meant for any good rather,was designed for particular people who would use that authority to frustrate the others. A particular people who believed that they were "Born to rule", a people who do not value life and culture of other people. 

This culminated in the outbreak of the civil war in Nigeria which brought about serious food shortage particularly in the Eastern region and certain areas of the mid-western state. The Biafrans paid a great humanitarian price as Gowon had succeeded in cutting them off from the sea robbing its inhabitants of shipping ports to receive military and humanitarian supplies, the farmers could not farm or plant crops because of the war. The absence of proteins in the diet resulted to marasmus and kwashiorkor and also there were compounded by the outbreak of other diseases epidemics and diarrhea.

Biafrans civilians and soldiers were starved to death at the height of Gowon economic blockade and"starved them into submission" most of them babies and children between 2 to 5 years and women died on a daily basis while their bodies lay rotting under the hot sun by the roadside and vultures were seen feeding on their them. 

Different mass communication media houses and international Red Cross IRC and other religious agencies have all given the same grim reports of hundreds of people dying daily, hundreds of thousands suffering from malnutrition and millions threatened with death and urging immediate improvement in the situation that if they should wait too long millions of Biafrans will perish.

 On November 26, 1968, AID officials estimated that half of the seven million people remaining in Biafra were in danger of starvation while on January 3, 1969, UNICEF reported that more than two million Biafrans died as result of starvation. Starvation was used as a tool by the federal government of Nigeria who ensured the absolute blockade of food and medical treatment of Biafrans living in the north.

Biafra and some Nigerian officials scarcely concealed their conviction that starvation was a legitimate weapon of war that would force Biafra to submission. At the same time, Biafrans Leaders stubbornly refused to consider allowing food supplies to come in overland through federally controlled territory on the ground as the food might be poisoned by them. 

Publisher: Prince Richmond C. Amadi

For Umuchukwu Writers.