Nigerian Civil War

La guerra civil en Nigeria, también conocida como la guerra en Biafra, provocó la muerte de millones de personas, la mayoría de hambre, y no terminó de consolidar una nación. Todavía se marcha pidiendo la separación de Biafra y alguno que otro activista prefiere el “Biafra o muerte”. Ya ha habido suficiente muerte y se ha incluso lucrado con esto. ¿Por qué no se busca otra solución? En vocabulario: Stalemate, plight, y cause célèbre

… images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding…

The Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War) was a civil war in Nigeria fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included ethno-religious riots in Northern Nigeria, a military coup, a counter-coup and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta also played a vital strategic role.

Severely malnourished refugee being cared for in a refugee camp near the Nigerian-Biafran war zone 

Within a year, the Federal Government troops surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockade imposed during the ensuing stalemate led to mass starvation. During the two and half years of the war, there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 3 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.

In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while France, Israel and some other countries supported Biafra.

Para saber

Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard.

The Igbo people are a meta-ethnicity native to the present-day south-central and southeastern Nigeria and also Equatorial Guine. In rural Nigeria, Igbo people work mostly as craftsmen, farmers and traders. The most important crop is the yam. Other staple crops include cassava and taro.

Before British colonial rule in the 20th century, the Igbo were a politically fragmented group. Since the defeat of the Republic of Biafra in 1970, the Igbo are sometimes classed as a "stateless nation".

The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966. Between 8,000 and 30,000 Igbos and easterners have been estimated to have been killed. A further 1 million Igbos fled the Northern Region into the East. In response to the killings some northerners were massacred in Port Harcourt and other eastern cities. These events led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war.

Vocabulario

Stalemate: any position or situation in which no action can be taken or progress made.

Talks between union and management resulted in a stalemate.

Plight: a dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation.

We must direct our efforts towards relieving the plight of children living in poverty.

 A cause célèbre /ˈkɔːz səˈlɛbrə/ is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. While English speakers had used the phrase for many years, it came into much more common usage after the 1894 conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage.

Nigeria's civil war explained - BBC News

… after more than 50 years of the Biafran War some of the issues that set it off continue to make headlines…

… in the south a general declared the independence of the Igbo people but Nigeria would not accept this…

… in the civil war that followed it is estimated that more than a million people died, most of them from hunger…

… the war might have ended in 1970 but in Nigeria many people believe that many issues were not resolved…

… a new generation of pro-biafrans has re-ignited the cause and they hold marches regularly…

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No tengo nada para ofrecerles a excepción de sangre, trabajo, lágrimas y sudor… Sangre, sudor y lágrimas

Empezó en 1950 cuando Corea del Norte invadió Corea del Sur, después de una serie de enfrentamientos a lo largo de la frontera… La guerra de Corea

…le cortaban un dedo cada noche y lo arrojaban con una flecha al campamento de los soldados con una nota diciendo que querían al hijo del jefe… La hija del general Patton

... las imágenes de niños de Biafra desnutridos y hambrientos saturaron los medios de comunicación... La guerra en Biafra

One of the characters assisting Count Carl Gustav von Rosen was Lynn Garrison, an ex-RCAF fighter pilot… The mercenaries in Biafra

Esto es parte del archivo: ¡Biafra o muerte!