Diplomacy in the context of the Nigeria Civil War

The Aburi Summit was a last ditch effort to save a tottering republic from collapse. It was called the Aburi Accord, signed by the leaders of the country about forty six years ago in Aburi, Ghana. It was an accord that was meant to tackle the issue of true federalism in the country. The Accord was precipitated by the crisis that trailed the counter coup of July 26 , and the massacre of southerners, mainly the Igbos in Northern Nigeria.

The counter coup was a revenge coup to the military coup that occurred earlier in the year while Lt. The entire country was enveloped in tension. Fear and mistrust pervaded the land. Soldiers and civilians of Eastern origin residing in the North, who had run home after the massacre that trailed the July 26 counter coup, could not return to the North for fear of their lives. The nation was thrown into chaos. Meetings were held, conferences were convened to find a solution to the national problem. The constitutional conference was adjourned indefinitely on October 3, Akpan, The supreme military council SMC could not meet because Ojukwu had refused to attend a meeting in any part of the country where there were soldiers of Northern extraction, while the other members of the SMC could not come to the East for a meeting.

For months, there was a stand-off between the Governor of the Eastern Region and the new Military rulers in Lagos.

It was this state of affairs that gave rise to the Aburi conference. The Aburi summit was the last ditch to save a tottering republic from collapse. The conference was facilitated by the then Ghanaian Head of State, Lt. Joe Ankrah, and was attended by nine military leaders of the country. For a start, it was also agreed by the participants that the Nigerian crisis would not be resolved through the use of arms. In Aburi, all the participants made a strong argument for a return to true federalism that was in operation in the country before the first military coup of January Specifically, Adebayo advocated a repeal of those Decrees that were passed after 15th January While Gowon agreed to do away with any decree that certainly tended to go towards too much centralization.

At the end of the two days conference, the much talked about Aburi accord was signed by the participants at that historic summit. It was resolved amongst others that members agree that the legislative and executive authority of the federal military government should remain in the supreme military council, to which any decision affecting the whole country shall be referred for determination provided that where it is not possible for a meeting to be held the matter requiring determination must be referred to military governors for their comment and concurrence.

Specifically, the council agreed that appointment to senior ranks in the police, diplomatic and consular services as well as appointment to super-scale posts in the federal civil service and the equivalent posts in the statutory corporation must be approved by the supreme military council. However, the Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when on July 9, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger River, passing through Benin City, until they were stopped at Ore just over the state boundary on August 21, just miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos.

The Biafran attack was led by Lt. They met little resistance and the Mid-West was easily taken over. This was due to the arrangement and agreement between Federal government and the East that all soldiers should be returned to their regions to stop the spate of killings in which Igbos soldiers had been major victims. The soldiers that were supposed to defend Mid-West were mostly mid-west Igbos and were in touch with their eastern counterpart. Gowon responded by asking then Col.

Muritala to form another division 2 division to expel Biafrans from mid-west, defend Biafra's west and attack Biafra from the west as well. Muritala later became military head of state. Although Benin City was retaken by the Nigerians on September 20, the Biafrans succeeded in their primary objective by tying down as many Nigerian Federal troops as they could.

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Gowon also launched an offensive from Biafra's south from the delta to riverine area using the bulk of Lagos Garrison command under Col. Adekunle black scorpion to form 3 division which latter changed to the 3rd marine commandos. Recruitment into the Nigeria Army increased with Biafra's offensive to the west mostly among other southern ethnics especially Yoruba and Edo people. Four battalions of the Nigerian 2nd Infantry Division were needed to drive the Biafrans back and eliminate their territorial gains made during the offensive. But the Nigerians were repulsed three times and lost thousands of troops as they tried to cross the Niger during October.

However reorganization of the Nigerian forces, the reluctance of the Biafran army to attack again, and the effects of a naval, land and air blockade of Biafra led to a change in the balance of forces. The Nigerians then settled down to a period of siege by blockading Biafra. In the north, Biafran forces were pushed back into their core Igbo territory, and the capital of Biafra, the city of Enugu, was captured by Nigerian forces belonging to the 1st Infantry Division on October 4.

The Biafrans continued to resist in their core Igbo heartlands, which were soon surrounded by Nigerian forces. From onward, the war fell into a form of stalemate, with Nigerian forces unable to make significant advances into the remaining areas of Biafran control. But another Nigerian offensive from April to June began to close the ring around the Biafrans with further advances on the two northern fronts and the capture of Port Harcourt on May 19, The blockade of the surrounded Biafrans led to a humanitarian disaster when it emerged that there was widespread civilian hunger and starvation in the besieged Igbo areas.

The Biafran government claimed that Nigeria was using hunger and genocide to win the war, and sought aid from the outside world. A Nigerian commission, including British doctors from the Liverpool University School of Tropical Medicine, visited Biafra after the war and concluded that the evidence of deliberate starvation was overplayed, caused by confusion between the symptoms of starvation and various tropical illnesses.

While they did not doubt that starvation had occurred, it was less clear to what extent it was a result of the Nigerian blockade or the restriction of food to the civilians to make it available to the military by the Biafran government. Many volunteer bodies organized blockade-breaking relief flights into Biafra, carrying food, medicines, and sometimes according to some claims weapons. More common was the claim that the arms-carrying aircraft would closely shadow aid aircraft, making it more difficult to distinguish between aid aircraft and military supply aircraft.

It has been argued that by prolonging the war the Biafran relief effort characterized by Canadian development consultant Ian Smillie as "an act of unfortunate and profound folly" , contributed to the deaths of as many as , civilians. The Nigerian government also claimed that the Biafran government was hiring foreign mercenaries to extend the war. Nigeria also used 'mercenaries', in the form of Egyptian pilots for their air force MiG 17 fighters and Il 28 bombers. The Egyptians conscripts frequently attacked civilian rather than military targets, bombing numerous Red Cross shelters.

Bernard Kouchner was one of a number of French doctors who volunteered with the French Red Cross to work in hospitals and feeding centers in besieged Biafra. Kouchner and the other French doctors signed this agreement. After entering the country, the volunteers, in addition to Biafran health workers and hospitals, were subjected to attacks by the Nigerian army, and witnessed civilians being murdered and starved by the blockading forces.

Kouchner also witnessed these events, particularly the huge number of starving children, and when he returned to France, he publicly criticized the Nigerian government and the Red Cross for their seemingly complicit behavior. With the help of other French doctors, Kouchner put Biafra in the media spotlight and called for an international response to the situation. In June , the Biafrans launched a desperate offensive against the Nigerians in their attempts to keep the Nigerians off-balance.

Nigerian Civil War - New World Encyclopedia

They were supported by foreign mercenary pilots continuing to fly in food, medical supplies and weapons. His force attacked Nigerian military airfields in Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin City and Ughelli, destroying or damaging a number of Nigerian Air Force jets used to attack relief flights, including a few Migs and three out of Nigeria's six Ilyushin Il bombers that were used to bomb Biafran villages and farms on a daily basis.

Although taken off-guard by the surprise Biafran offensive, the Nigerians soon recovered and held off the Biafrans long enough for the offensive to stall out. The Biafran air attacks did disrupt the combat operations of the Nigerian Air Force, but only for a few months. The Nigerian federal forces launched their final offensive against the Biafrans on December 23, with a major thrust by the 3rd Marine Commando Division the division was commanded by Col.

Obasanjo, who later became president twice which succeeded in splitting the Biafran enclave into two by the end of the year. The final Nigerian offensive, named "Operation Tail-Wind," was launched on January 7, with the 3rd Marine Commando Division attacking, and supported by the 1st Infantry division to the north and the 2nd Infantry division to the south. The war finally ended with the final surrender of the Biafran forces in the last Biafra-held town of Amichi on January 13, The war cost Nigeria a great deal in terms of lives, money, and its image in the world.

During the war, there were , military casualties and between , and two million civilians' deaths from starvation. Reconstruction, helped by oil money, was swift; however, the old ethnic and religious tensions remained a constant feature of Nigerian politics. Military government continued in power in Nigeria for many years, and people in the oil-producing areas claimed they were being denied a fair share of oil revenues.

The Igbos felt that they had been deliberately displaced from government positions, because their pre-war posts were now occupied by other Nigerians mostly Yoruba and Hausa - Fulani. When Igbo civil servants left to join similar posts in Biafra, their positions had been replaced; and when the war was over the government did not feel that it should sack their replacements, preferring to regard the previous incumbents as having resigned. This, however, has led to a feeling of an injustice.

This was seen as a deliberate policy to hold back the Igbo middle class, leaving them with little wealth to expand their business interests. In its zenith the Kingdom controlled most of Igbo land, including influence on the Anioma people , Arochukwu which controlled slavery in Igbo , and Onitsha land. Unlike the other two regions, decisions within the Igbo communities were made by a general assembly in which men and women participated.

The differing political systems among these three peoples reflected and produced divergent customs and values. The Hausa-Fulani commoners, having contact with the political system only through a village head designated by the Emir or one of his subordinates, did not view political leaders as amenable to influence. Political decisions were to be submitted to. As with all other authoritarian religious and political systems, leadership positions were given to persons willing to be subservient and loyal to superiors.

A chief function of this political system in this context was to maintain conservative values, which caused many Hausa-Fulani to view economic and social innovation as subversive or sacrilegious. In contrast to the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbo often participated directly in the decisions which affected their lives.

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They had a lively awareness of the political system and regarded it as an instrument for achieving their personal goals. Status was acquired through the ability to arbitrate disputes that might arise in the village, and through acquiring rather than inheriting wealth. These tradition-derived differences were perpetuated and perhaps enhanced by the British system of colonial rule in Nigeria.

In the North, the British found it convenient to rule indirectly through the Emirs, thus perpetuating rather than changing the indigenous authoritarian political system. Christian missionaries were excluded from the North, and the area thus remained virtually closed to European cultural imperialism. By contrast the richest of the Igbo often sent their sons to British universities, thinking to prepare them to work with the British.

During the ensuing years, the Northern Emirs maintained their traditional political and religious institutions, while reinforcing their social structure. At the time of independence in , the North was by far the most underdeveloped area in Nigeria. The West also enjoyed a much higher literacy level, as it was the first part of the country to have contact with western education, and established a free primary education program under the pre-independence Western Regional Government.

In the South, the missionaries rapidly introduced Western forms of education. Consequently, the Yoruba were the first group in Nigeria to adopt Western bureaucratic social norms. They made up the first classes of African civil servants, doctors, lawyers, and other technicians and professionals. In Igbo areas, missionaries were introduced at a later date because of British difficulty in establishing firm control over the highly autonomous Igbo communities. Population pressure in the Igbo homeland, combined with aspirations for monetary wages, drove thousands of Igbos to other parts of Nigeria in search of work.

By the s, Igbo political culture was more unified and the region relatively prosperous, with tradesmen and literate elites active not just in the traditionally Igbo South, but throughout Nigeria. The British colonial ideology that divided Nigeria into three regions—North, West and East—exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social differences among Nigeria's different ethnic groups.

The country was divided in such a way that the North had a slightly higher population than the other two regions combined. On this basis the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the colonial authorities. Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and based on ethnic allegiances: These parties were not exclusively homogeneous in terms of their ethnic or regional make-up; the disintegration of Nigeria resulted largely from the fact that these parties were primarily based in one region and one tribe.

To simplify matters, we will refer to them here as the Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo-based; or Northern, Western and Eastern parties. The basis of modern Nigeria formed in , when Britain amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates. Beginning with the Northern Protectorate, the British implemented a system of indirect rule of which they exerted influence through alliances with local forces.

This system worked so well, Colonial Governor Frederick Lugard successfully lobbied to extend it to the Southern Protectorate through amalgamation. In this way, a foreign and hierarchical system of governance was imposed on the Igbos along with many other smaller groups in the South. They also wanted an independent Nigeria to be organized into several small states so that the conservative North would not dominate the country.

Northern leaders, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the perpetuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions with the North having a clear majority. Igbo and Yoruba leaders, anxious to obtain an independent country at all costs, accepted the Northern demands.

However, it would be wrong to state that the two Southern regions were politically or philosophically aligned and there was already discordance between the two Southern political parties. Firstly, the AG favoured a loose confederacy of regions in the emergent Nigerian nation whereby each region would be in total control of its own distinct territory. The status of Lagos was a sore point for the AG which did not want Lagos, a Yoruba town which was at that time the Federal Capital and seat of national government to be designated as the Capital of Nigeria if it meant loss of Yoruba Suzerainty.

The AG insisted that Lagos, a Yoruba city situated in Western Nigeria must be completely recognised as a Yoruba town without any loss of identity, control or autonomy by the Yoruba. Contrary to this position, the NCNC was anxious to declare Lagos, by virtue of it being the "Federal Capital Territory" as "no man's land" - a declaration which as could be expected angered the AG which offered to help fund the development of other territory in Nigeria as "Federal Capital Territory" and then threatened secession from Nigeria if it didn't get its way.

The threat of secession by the AG was tabled, documented and recorded in numerous constitutional conferences, including the constitutional conference held in London in with the demand that a right of secession be enshrined in the constitution of the emerging Nigerian nation to allow any part of the emergent nation to opt out of Nigeria, should the need arise.

In the face of sustained opposition by the NCNC delegates, later joined by the NPC and backed by threats to view maintenance of the inclusion of secession by the AG as treasonable by the British, the AG was forced to renounce its position of inclusion of the right of secession a part of the Nigerian constitution. Each government was entitled to collect royalties from resources extracted within its area.

This changed in when Shell-BP found large petroleum deposits in the Eastern region. Nigeria's First Republic came into being on 1 October He formed an alliance with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, and its popular nationalist leader Nnamdi "Zik" Azikiwe , who became Governor General and then President.

The Yoruba-aligned Action Group, the third major party, played the opposition role. Workers became increasingly aggrieved by low wages and bad conditions, especially when they compared their lot to the lifestyles of politicians in Lagos. Most wage earners lived in the Lagos area, and many lived in overcrowded dangerous housing.

Labour activity including strikes intensified in , culminating in a nationwide general strike in June Strikers disobeyed an ultimatum to return to work and at one point were dispersed by riot police. Eventually, they did win wage increases. The strike included people from all ethnic groups.

Njoku later wrote that the general strike heavily exacerbated tensions between the Army and ordinary civilians, and put pressure on the Army to take action against a government which was widely perceived as corrupt. The elections , which involved heavy campaigning all year, brought ethnic and regional divisions into focus.

Resentment of politicians ran high and many campaigners feared for their safety while touring the country. The Army repeatedly deployed to Tiv Division , killing hundreds and arresting thousands of Tiv people agitating for self-determination.

Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy. Violence spread throughout the country and some began to flee the North and West, some to Dahomey. Britain maintained its economic hold on the country, through continued alliance and reinforcement of the Northern bloc. In addition to Shell-BP, the British reaped profits from mining and commerce.

The British-owned United Africa Company alone controlled Also murdered was Sir Ahmadu Bello's wife and officers of Northern extraction. He did not return until days after the coup. There was widespread suspicion that the Igbo coup plotters had tipped him and other Igbo leaders off regarding the impending coup. In addition to the killings of the Northern political leaders, the Premier of the Western region, Ladoke Akintola and Yoruba senior military officers were also killed. The coup, also referred to as "The Coup of the Five Majors", has been described in some quarters as Nigeria's only revolutionary coup.

Claims of electoral fraud were one of the reasons given by the coup plotters. This coup was however seen not as a revolutionary coup by other sections of Nigerians, especially in the Northern and Western sections and latter revisioninsts of Nigerian coups, mostly from Eastern part of Nigeria have belatedly maintained to widespread disbelief amongst Western and Southern Nigerians that the majors sought to spring Action Group leader Obafemi Awolowo out of jail and make him head of the new government. From there, they would dismantle the Northern-dominated power structure. However, their efforts to take power were thwarted by Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi , an Igbo and loyalist head of the Nigerian Army , who suppressed coup operations in the South.

The majors surrendered, and Aguiyi-Ironsi was declared head of state on 16 January. Aguyi-Ironsi suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. He then abolished the regional confederated form of government and pursued unitary like policies heitheto favoured by the NCNC, having apparently been influenced by some NCNC political philosophy.

He, however, appointed Colonel Hassan Katsina , son of Katsina emir Usman Nagogo , to govern the Northern Region, indicating some willingness to maintain cooperation with this bloc. Ironsi fatally did not bring the failed plotters to trial as required by then-military law and as advised by most northern and western officers, rather, coup plotters were maintained in the military on full pay and some were even promoted while apparently awaiting trial. The coup, despite its failure and since no repercussion was meted out to coup plotters and since no significant Igbo political leaders were affected was widely perceived as having benefited mostly the Igbo.

However Ironsi, himself an Igbo, was thought to have made numerous attempts to please Northerners. The other event that also fuelled the so-called "Igbo conspiracy" was the killing of Northern leaders, and the killing of the Brigader Ademulegun's pregnant wife by the coup executioners. Despite the overwhelming contradictions of the coup being executed by mostly Northern soldiers such as John Atom Kpera, later military governor of Benue State , the killing of Igbo soldier Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Unegbe by coup executioners, and Ironsi's termination of an Igbo-led coup, the ease by which Ironsi stopped the coup led to suspicion that the Igbo coup plotters planned all along to pave the way for Ironsi to take the reins of power in Nigeria.

Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu became military governor of the Eastern Region at this time. The Northern bloc found this decree intolerable. In the face of provocation from the Eastern media which repeatedly showed humiliating posters and cartoons of the slain northern politicians, on the night of 29 July , northern soldiers at Abeokuta barracks mutinied, thus precipitating a counter-coup , which have already been in the planning stages.

Gowon was chosen as a compromise candidate. He was a Northerner, a Christian, from a minority tribe, and had a good reputation within the army. It seems that Gowon immediately faced not only a potential standoff with the East, but secession threats from the Northern and even the Western region. Ambassadors from Britain and the United States, however, urged Gowon to maintain control over the whole country. Gowon followed this plan, repealing the Unification Decree, announcing a return to the federal system. From June through October , pogroms in the North killed an estimated 80, to , Igbo, half of them children, and caused more than a million to two million to flee to the Eastern Region.

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The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria late Sept. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowon could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Ibos. The Federal Military Government also laid the groundwork for the blockade of the Eastern Region which went into full effect in On 27 May , Gowon proclaimed the division of Nigeria into twelve states.

This decree carved the Eastern Region in three parts: Now the Igbos, concentrated in the East Central State, would lose control over most of the petroleum, located in the other two areas. On 30 May , Ojukwu declared independence of the Republic of Biafra. The Federal Military Government immediately placed an embargo on all shipping to and from Biafra—but not on oil tankers. Although the very young nation had a chronic shortage of weapons to go to war, it was determined to defend itself. Britain supplied amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to the Nigerian side because of its desire to preserve the country it had created.

The Biafra side received arms and ammunition from France even though French government denied sponsoring Biafra.

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An article in Paris Match of 20 November claimed that French arms were reaching Biafra through neighbouring countries such as Gabon. Several peace accords were held, with the most notable one held at Aburi , Ghana the Aburi Accord ,. There were different accounts on what took place in Aburi. Ojukwu accused the federal government of going back on their promises while the federal government accused Ojukwu of distortion and half-truths.

He was warned by his advisers that this reflected a failure of Gowon to understand the difference and, that being the case, predicted that it would be reneged upon.

Diplomacy in the context of the Nigeria Civil War

When this happened, Ojukwu regarded it as both a failure by Gowon to keep to the spirit of the Aburi agreement, and lack of integrity on the side of the Nigerian Military Government in the negotiations toward a united Nigeria. Gowon's advisers, to the contrary, felt that he had enacted as much as was politically feasible in fulfillment of the spirit of Aburi.

Their advantages included fighting in their homeland, support of most Easterners, determination, and use of limited resources. The UK-which still maintained the highest level of influence over Nigeria's highly valued oil industry through Shell - BP [85] and the Soviet Union supported the Nigerian government, especially by military supplies. Shortly after extending its blockade to include oil, the Nigerian government launched a " police action " to retake the secessionist territory.

The Biafra strategy had succeeded. The federal government had started the war, and the East was defending itself. The division was led mostly by northern officers. After facing unexpectedly fierce resistance and high casualties, the right-hand Nigerian column advanced on the town of Nsukka , which fell on 14 July, while the left-hand column made for Garkem, which was captured on 12 July.

The Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when, on 9 August, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger river, passing through Benin City , until they were stopped at Ore in present day Ondo State just over the state boundary on 21 August, just miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos.

The Biafran attack was led by Lt. Banjo, a Yoruba, with the Biafran rank of brigadier.

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The attack met little resistance and the Mid-West was easily taken over. This was due to the pre-secession arrangement that all soldiers should return to their regions to stop the spate of killings, in which Igbo soldiers had been major victims. General Gowon responded by asking Colonel Murtala Mohammed who later became head of state in to form another division the 2nd Infantry Division to expel the Biafrans from the Mid-West, as well as to defend the West side and attack Biafra from the West as well.

As Nigerian forces retook the Mid-West, the Biafran military administrator declared the Republic of Benin on 19 September, though it ceased to exist the next day. The present country of Benin , west of Nigeria, was still named Dahomey at that time. Although Benin City was retaken by the Nigerians on 22 September, the Biafrans succeeded in their primary objective by tying down as many Nigerian Federal troops as they could. Gowon also launched an offensive into Biafra south from the Niger Delta to the riverine area, using the bulk of the Lagos Garrison command under Colonel Benjamin Adekunle called the Black Scorpion to form the 3rd Infantry Division which was later renamed as the 3rd Marine Commando.

The command was divided into two brigades with three battalions each. By 10 July , it had conquered all its assigned territories. By 12 July the 2nd brigade had captured Gakem, Ogudu, Ogoja. Enugu became the hub of secession and rebellion, and the Nigerian government believed that once Enugu was captured, the drive for secession would end. The Nigerians were repulsed three times as they attempted to cross the River Niger during October, resulting in the loss of thousands of troops, dozens of tanks and equipment. The first attempt by the 2nd Infantry Division on 12 October to cross the Niger from the town of Asaba to the Biafran city of Onitsha cost the Nigerian Federal Army over 5, soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing.

Operation Tiger Claw 17—20 October was a military conflict between Nigerian and Biafran military forces. Ogbu Ogi, who was responsible for controlling the area between Calabar and Opobo, and Lynn Garrison, a foreign mercenary. The Biafrans came under immediate fire from the water and the air. For the next two days Biafran stations and military supplies were bombarded by the Nigerian air force.

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That same day Lynn Garrison reached Calabar but came under immediate fire by federal troops. By 20 October, Garrison's forces withdrew from the battle while Col. Ogi officially surrendered to Gen. On 19 May Portharcourt was captured. With the capture of Enugu, Bonny, Calabar and Portharcourt, the outside world was left in no doubt of the Federal supremacy in the war. In a bid to control the oil in the eastern region, the Federal government placed a shipping embargo on the territory.

This embargo did not involve oil tankers. The leadership of Biafra wrote to Shell-BP demanding royalties for the oil that was being explored in their region. After much deliberation, Shell-BP decided to pay Biafra the sum of , pounds. The news of this payment reached the Federal government, which immediately extended the shipping embargo to oil tankers The Nigerian government also made it clear to Shell-BP that it expected the company to pay all outstanding oil royalty immediately. With the stalling on the payment for Biafra government ask Shell-BP to stop operations in Biafra and took over from the company.

Its facilities had been damaged and needed repair. The royalties enabled Nigeria to buy more weapons, hire mercenaries, etc. Biafra proved unable to compete on this economic level. Minorities in Biafra suffered atrocities at the hands of those fighting for both sides of the conflict. The pogroms in the North in were indiscriminately directed against people from Eastern Nigeria. Despite a seemingly natural alliance among these victims of the pogroms in the north, tensions rose as minorities, who had always harbored an interest in having their own state within the Nigerian federation, were suspected of collaborating with Federal troops to undermine Biafra.

The Federal troops were equally culpable of this crime. In the Rivers area, ethnic minorities sympathetic to Biafra were killed in the hundreds by federal troops. In Calabar, some Efiks were also killed by Federal troops. The British planned to maintain and expand their supply of cheap high-quality oil from Nigeria. Therefore they placed a high priority on maintenance of oil extraction and refining operations. They backed the Federal Government but, when the war broke out, cautioned them not to damage British oil installations in the East.

Two-thirds of this oil came from the Eastern region, and another third from the newly created Mid-West region. Two-fifths of all Nigerian oil ended up in Britain. Shell-BP therefore considered carefully a request by the Federal Government that it refuse to pay the royalties demanded by Biafra. Its lawyers advised that payment to Biafra would be appropriate if this government did in fact maintain law and order in the region in question. The British government advised that paying Biafra could undermine the goodwill of the Federal Government.

Shell-BP made the payment, and the government established a blockade on oil exports. Ojukwu, even victorious, will not be in a strong position. He will require all the international help and recognition he can get. The Federal Government would be much better placed both internationally and internally.

They would have a cast iron case for the severest treatment of a company which has subsidised a rebel, and I feel fairly convinced they would press their case to the lengths of cancelling the Company's concessions and nationalising their installations. I conclude, therefore, if the company does change its mind and asks the British Government for advice, the best that could be given is for it to clamber hastily back on the Lagos side of the fence with cheque book at the ready.

Shell-BP took this advice. During the war, Britain covertly supplied Nigeria with weapons and military intelligence and may have also helped it to hire mercenaries. The charities Oxfam and Save the Children Fund were soon deployed, with large sums of money at their disposal. France provided weapons, mercenary fighters, and other assistance to Biafra and promoted its cause internationally, describing the situation as a genocide. Charles de Gaulle referred to "Biafra's just and noble cause". Nigeria represented a base of British influence in the predominantly French-aligned area.

Ojukwu suggested on 10 August , that Biafra introduce compulsory French classes in secondary, technical and teacher training schools, in order to "benefit from the rich culture of the French-speaking world". France led the way, internationally, for political support of Biafra. Fairly widespread student-worker unrest diverted the government's attention only temporarily. The government declared an arms embargo but maintained arms shipments to Biafra under cover of humanitarian aid.