This post is for educational purposes and to celebrate survivors and gain some first hand insight into experiencs of survivors.

BBC report copied:
The Nigerian forces approached the last stronghold of Biafran forces in Enugu.

Surrounded and outnumbered a thousand to one, the hungry wounded exhausted army of Biafra stood. In their darkest hour, on the brink of annihilation, the Last Army of the igbo tribe did the unthinkable. They charged."...culled from BBC History The Nigerian civil war..

The deaths of more than a million people in Nigeria as a result of the brutal civil war which ended exactly 52 years ago are a scar on our nation's history

For most Nigerians, the war over the breakaway state of Biafra is generally regarded as an unfortunate episode best forgotten, but for the Igbo people who fought for secession, it remains a life-defining event.

In 1967, following two coups and turmoil which led to about a million Igbos returning to the south-east of Nigeria, the Republic of Biafra seceded with 33-year-old military officer Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu at the helm.

The Nigerian government declared war and after a year and a half of fighting, Biafra surrendered. On 15 January 1970, the conflict officially ended.

The government's policy of "no victor, no vanquished" may have led to a lack of official reflection, but many Nigerians of Igbo origin grew up on stories from people who lived through the war.

In January 1966, some senior Nigerian army officers, mostly of the Igbo ethnic group, assassinated key politicians during a coup in the West African state.

Those killed included Ahmadu Bello, a revered leader in the north.

This led to months of massacres against the Igbo living in the north. Tens of thousands were killed while about a million fled to what was then known as the Eastern Region.

These events sparked the decision to secede, spearheaded by Ojukwu, who was then the military governor of the Eastern Region.

CivilWar timeline

January 1966 - Nigerian government overthrown in what was seen as an "Igbo coup" led by junior army officers

January 1966 - Lt Col Odumegwu-Ojukwu appointed military governor of Eastern Region

July 1966 - Second coup masterminded by Murtala Muhammed, Lt Col Yakubu Gowon becomes head of state

June to October 1966 - Riots in northern Nigeria targeted at Igbos, killing many and forcing up to a million to return to south-eastern Nigeria

May 1967 - Ojukwu declares independence of the Republic of Biafra

July 1967 - War begins

October 1967 - Biafran capital Enugu falls

May 1968 - Nigeria captures Port Harcourt

April 1969 - Umuahia, new Biafran capital falls to Nigerian forces

January 1970 - Ojukwu flees Nigeria

January 1970 - Biafra surrenders

Christopher Ejike Ago, soldier

He had just finished grammar school and started training as a veterinary assistant at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), in south-eastern Nigeria, when the civil war began.

Almost every student he knew became part of the war effort.

He joined the Biafran army and was assigned to the signal unit, whose responsibilities included "active intelligence and eavesdropping on the Nigerian military".

"We thought we were magicians," said 76-year-old Mr Ago.

"The Nigerians who were pursuing us were trained soldiers. We were not. We were drafted into the war, given two days' training.

"Plus the fact that we were hungry. Some of us, our skin was getting rotten. Nobody can fight a war like that."
Mr Ago remembers the overpowering hunger that often forced Biafran soldiers to catch and eat mice. He also remembers the last year of the war when his unit was continuously on the move, fleeing the advancing Nigerian army.

"Somewhere in the middle of the war," he said, "the Biafrans made some dramatic successes that gave us hope that we might hold the Nigerians until at least some help from outside came."
Mr Ago left the army and went in search of his family, whom he had not heard from in more than two years.

He collected his portion from an allocation of raw rice to his unit, then set off towards the village of a relative, where he suspected his parents and siblings would be holed up.

"I had to carry the rice while starving myself, carrying it across rivers and forests until I found them," he said.
Many of his friends and classmates had died at the battlefront. But his family was delighted to see that the son and brother they assumed dead was alive. And they were glad that he had turned up with food.

Hunger killed more Biafrans than bullets and bombs.

When the university was reopened a few months after the war ended, Mr Ago returned to UNN, eventually graduating with a degree in plant and soil science.

"I think we would have done better if we had handled it with a little bit more intelligence," said Mr Ago. "I think now that Ojukwu… thought he was Jesus Christ.

"He thought he could do magic. If he had slowed down and allowed some people who were with him to advise him properly, we would have come out better than we did."

Felix Nwankwo Oragwu, scientist

He was a physics lecturer at UNN when the civil war began.

For the next 30 months, he headed the Research and Production (RAP) group comprising Igbo scientists from various fields.

Its primary responsibility was to provide technological support to the Biafran army, which was poorly equipped.
The RAP's most notable product was the "ogbunigwe", a weapons launcher of remarkable and devastating effect which influenced the outcome of many battles in Biafra's favour, according to historical reports.

"Without us, the war would have lasted only about 30 hours," said the 85-year-old.

"When the war started, there was not a single weapon either in a store or anywhere throughout Biafra. They only had knives and cutlasses. No gun, no bomb, no nothing."


In the aftermath of the war, the Nigerian government did not want to impose any form of collective punishment.

Nevertheless, the Igbo faced some devastating consequences, particularly economically as the Biafran currency that people had accumulated became worthless.

Many Igbo still feel sidelined in Nigerian politics, as since the civil war no-one from the ethnic group has become president.

Increasing cries of marginalisation have led in recent years to the emergence of Igbo groups agitating once again for secession, particularly the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

Mr Oragwu wishes that the Igbo had paid less attention to the scramble for power at the centre, and instead distinguished their region by advancing the technological gains of the war.

"Biafra would have been a technological nation and would have been able to compete with anybody," he said, anger in his voice.

"That is what makes me sad. By this time, we would have been competing with at least South Korea."

The scientist's wartime accomplishments had caught the attention of the Nigerian authorities and he was invited by the government to pioneer a special science and technology programme for the country.
He was behind the setting up of four universities of science and technology in different regions of Nigeria and after retirement he published Scientific and Technological Innovations in Biafra, a book he hoped would inspire young Nigerians.

"Nigeria was programmed by the British colonial authorities not to participate in production and manufacture of global technologies," he wrote in the book.

"The war gave the opportunity to… reject the colonial design."

Nigeria 's main tactic was a blockade which was imposed as a deliberate policy during the ensuing stalemate which led to mass starvation of Igbos.

During the two and half years of the war, there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 2 million Igbo civilians died of starvation.

Lack of medicine also contributed. Thousands of people starved to death every day as the war progressed. The International Committee of the Red Cross in September 1968 estimated 8,000–10,000 adult deaths from starvation each day, while about 25000 children died each day due to starvation and diseases.

The leader of a Nigerian peace conference delegation said in 1968 that "starvation is a legitimate weapon of war and we have every intention of using it against the rebels". This stance is generally considered to reflect the policy of the Nigerian government

Legally the Nigerian government would tell you that about 1million igbos died due to the civil war. But a depe.dive into BBC, World red Cross and the CC Foundation media estimates the death toll to be over 3 million .98% Children born between 1967 and 1970 died in the war of shortly after due to diseas and starvation

The Nigerian state declaring No Victor No Vanquished was a master stroke. The losses are just too severe. War never solves anything . It is imperative we learn from history so we don't repeat past mistakes. To deny of hide from history is to damn oneself to repeat them..