Another Genocide against Igbos Biafran's In Nigeria

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that has long been agitating for an independent state of Biafra.

 

For more than five years now, IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups have been organizing peaceful protests across the country and demanding self-determination. Led by Nnamdi Kanu, a British Nigerian activist, IPOB blames the central government for leaving the region marginalized and is seeking a peaceful referendum to break away from Nigeria and create a separate state. That doesn’t sit well with the fragile central government, which has frequently used force to try to crush the movement.

 

In October 2015, political tensions ratcheted up when Kanu was arrested by Nigeria’s security forces on treason and secession charges on his return to the country from the United Kingdom, where he is based. Kanu runs Radio Biafra—an online radio station that broadcasts from London, where he agitates for a referendum and communicates with his followers.

 

Kanu’s arrest sparked nationwide protests among his followers. Each day, thousands of pro-Biafra agitators and supporters, hoisting flags and chanting Biafra songs, moved across the country, demanding his unconditional release. The protests often turned bloody with brutality and extrajudicial killings by security forces. In 2016, Amnesty International accused Nigeria’s security forces of embarking on a “chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence resulting in the deaths of at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters in the south east of the country.” Abroad, Kanu’s supporters staged protests at Nigerian embassies and high commissions in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.

 

After spending more than 18 months in jail without trial, Kanu was released in April 2017 with stringent bail conditions that restricted his movements, but the agitation grew even louder with more peaceful protests and rallies.

 

The federal government run by President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the Fulani north, has strongly rejected any call for a referendum and stated that his administration would not bow down to demands for separatism, saying the country’s unity is “not negotiable.”

 

In August 2017, the trajectory of the pro-Biafra movements and agitations changed again. The government launched Operation Python Dance to quell the agitation in the region, a military operation that led to the deaths of several pro-Biafra activists. Kanu’s home in Umuahia, in the country’s southeast, was invaded and raided by security forces, which IPOB said was a “calculated attempt to assassinate him.” Kanu was whisked away by his supporters during the invasion and was hidden until he reappeared in Israel in October 2018 before returning to the U.K.

 

 Until date The Nigeria Government and it military has been killing the young Igbos Biafran's in there homes  

 

Genocide against Igbos Biafran's In Nigeria between 1966 and 1970

 

During the massacre of Igbos in Nigeria between 1966 and 1970, one to three million people died. In the decades since, writers have worked to make sense of the immense human tragedy. 

 

These literary representations of the massacres use the Holocaust as an important point of reference. 

 

The war in Nigeria, with its associated mass atrocities, is arguably one of the first major moments in postcolonial Africa when accusations of genocide were made. Following military coups in Nigeria in 1966, the military and ethnic extremists systematically targeted and killed Igbos across the then Northern and Western regions of Nigeria. 

 

Massacres of Igbos and other Easterners across the country led to thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions. 

 

The massacres led the Eastern Region of Nigeria to declare its secession from Nigeria. The region was renamed the republic of Biafra. Nigeria invaded Biafra in July 1967, leading to a protracted war. The federal government used starvation tactics which led to upwards of three million civilian deaths in Biafra. Biafra officially surrendered to Nigeria in January 1970. 

 

After its genocidal war, the Nigerian government proceeded to engineer a culture of denial. 

 

To counter that propaganda, writers reflecting on that past have often framed the war as genocide. A common feature in the writings is the comparison of Igbo experiences of atrocities to Jewish ones during the Holocaust. 

 

The Holocaust as cultural icon of genocide

During the Biafran War, U.S.-based Igbo poet, Onwuchekwa Jemie, compared the murder of Igbos in Nigeria to the Nazi German murder of Jews during the Second World War. His poem, “Requiem” (from his 1970 poetry collection, Biafra: Requiem for the Dead in War) reflects this: