by FIDELIS MBAH
Fifty years ago, a devastating civil war that killed more than one million people in Nigeria came to an end.
Most of those who lost their lives in what became known as the Biafran war died from fighting, disease and starvation during the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
In 1967, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the military governor of Nigeria’s then-Eastern Region inhabited mainly by Igbo people, accused the federal government of marginalising and killing thousands of ethnic Igbos living in the north.
On May 30 of that year, Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared the former Eastern Region a sovereign and independent republic under the name of Biafra – a unilateral move rejected by the federal authorities.
A bloody civil war ensued, with federal troops deployed to stop the secessionist movement.
The Nigerian forces cut off aid and access to the area throughout the war, which ended with the surrender of Biafra in January 1970.
The Republic of Biafra ceased to exist and General Yakubu Gowon, the leader of the federal government, famously declared that there was “no victor, no vanquished” in the war.
Fifty years on, the scars are yet to heal for many, including former fighters who suffered injuries and others who lost their loved ones and suffered huge economic losses.
On Monday, at a “Never Again” conference held in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, Igbo leaders from the southeast urged the government to step up development efforts in the region and called for increased political inclusion and economic support to end fresh calls for a breakaway Biafra state.
Al Jazeera for more