The thirty-month Nigerian civil war ended on 12th January when secessionist Biafra was finally overwhelmed by federal troops. The toll in human lives was at least 2,000,000 dead, more than have perished in the war in Vietnam From the beginning, rival imperialist interests intervened in the Nigerian civil war, seeking to deepen their influence on the African continent. Both sides accepted and sought aid from the most reactionary sources, and each accused Ine orner or makig important concessions to imperialism to secure military backing.
The governments of the capitalist world did not regard either side as a revolutionary threat to their interests.
Britain, whose British Petroleum-Shell group alone had investments in Nigeria of nearly $500,000,000, became a heavy supplier of arms to the federal government at Lagos.
France, Britain's old colonial rival, was Biafra's chief supporter, although it never gave the Ojukwu regime formal recognition and never provided the volume of aid the Wilson government gave une orner side.
Europe intervened, although not usually on the same side. Inus, tortugal aidea biatra, walle Spain was reputedly running guns to Nigeria.
secessionist Biafra: Gabon and the Ivory Coast, alliance won by default. both former French colonies; and Zambia and Lan zanta.
washington maintained an ostentanous newtrality, but tacitly supported the Nigerian government, while providing some $80,000,000 in 1000 генет тог віатта-а питатава волеу that was also designed to assure its influence there if the Biafrans should win their bid for independence.
Both Moscow and Peking intervened, too.
Spain in providing massive military aid to the neocolonialist government or General yakubu Gowon in Lagos. Peking condemned the Soviet bureaucrats, expressing its own support, albeit critical, for the Biafrans' right to self-determination.
The civil conflict was further complicated by the mixing of tribal, class, and regional issues. The country itself was an artificial creation of British imperialism, bringing within arbitrary geographical boundaries people with no ted the semi-nomadic Hausas of the North, the Yorubas of the West, and the Ibos of the East, along with many smaller tribes.
ATROCITIES AREN'T WHAT THEY THOSE CARELESS AMERICANS USED TO BE. WE NAZIS KNEW DROP BOMBS AND NAPALM ON EVEKY VIGM. SOMETIME ANYTHING. EVEN THER OWN WE TORTURED THEM FOR TROOPS! SLOPPY! AND IT MONTHS BEFORE WE GASSED TANCO INCH NCON THEM. THERE'S NO SUBSTI- NO GERTHER ATROCY TUTE FOR OLD-FASHIONED PHOTOS INTO PRINT. SUCH GERMAN CRAFTSMANSHIP INEFFICIENCY! DISGUSTING! estimated 3,000,000 people remained in the Biafran enclave at the final collapse.
The Ibos, who were once the favoured instruments of Bnush rule In Nigeria, became tue principle victims of the artificial state after independence.
Without the protection of the British, the Some of the most unsavoury governments in Ibos, hated for their role as colonial administrators, became easy targets for pogroms along tribal lines. In face of widespread fraud, the Ibos political representatives boycotted the federal In Africa itself, only four regimes recognised elections of 1964, which a northern-dominated In January 1966, Eastern army officers led by Major-General J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Ibo, staged a coup, deposing the "elected" government. Ironsi was overthrown in a counter-coup in July 1966, which was followed by a pogrom in which as many as 50,000 Ibos were killed. This set the stage for secession.
It can still be debated whether Biafra constituted a nation, and as such has been denied its legitimate right to self-determination. It may Mos ow joined British imperialism and Franco's yet be seen that the Ibos were right in believing they could never be secure in a Nigeria controlled by men tractional chemies.
But the factor that outweighed all others, in the absence of a working-class party or a revolutionary movement on either side, was the deepening influence of Western imperialism-in Nigerian and Biafra alike. The New York Times gave its estimate of the outcome of the war in its Januarv 13 issue Nigeria, the Times said, "has enough oil to put her among the top six or seven producers in common culture or history. The tederation uni- the world and the population to sustain industrialisation... The end of the war will make it possible to reopen oil fields disrupted by the fighting, including tracts owned by French, ItaTHEY HAVE NO DISCIPLINE I PERSONALLY STOOD BEHIND EVEXY AIKOUTY AMEKICANS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO GIVES THE ORDERS! THEY BLAME THE LOWEST RANKING OFFICER AS IF IT WAS SOMETHING TO BE ASHAMED OF BAYSWATER 9193 The Black Dwarf 7 Carlisle Street Lonâon WIA4PZ Dear Sir, the renewal of the subscription as the Imbassy does not wish to continue with it.
THEY HAVE LOTS OF EXPENSIVE NEW WEAPONS, BUT THEY DONT KILL AS MANY CVILANS AS WE DID WEr OUR OLD EQUIPMENT. WHAT WE COULD HAVE DONE WITH OH WELL, PERHAPS I'M TOO HER HARDWARE TS SEVEKE. THEY KE LEARNING.
INSPIRING TO THINK OF. THERE'S HOPE FOR THEM YET.
INS - S.Gilbat EMBASSY OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIALIST REPUBLIC (PRESS DEPARTMENT) 6-7 KENSINGTON PALACE GARDENS LONDON, W.8 V.Basetlíková Culture
What happened to the Indian population Indians. The Black Dwarf 20th February 1970 He shot the kid through the head with his 45,
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London, 26.January 1970 I return herewith the invoice for Sincerely yours,