A Timeline of the Nigeria-Biafran War

A TIMELINE OF THE NIGERIAN BIAFRA WAR

[1] JANUARY 15TH 1966:

A military coup, code named Operation Damissa takes place all over Nigeria. The coup is led by military officers from various ranks and units in the Nigerian armed forces; notable among them are Majors, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Wole Ademoyega, and Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Notable political and military personalities like the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Premier of the Western Region, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Col. Arthur Unegbe, Brigadier Maimalari, and several others are killed by the coupists.

Eventually, there would be growing perception that the coup is an attempt by the Igbo ethnic group to dominate the country. This perception would grow and lead to monumentally tragic consequences. The apparently disproportionate pattern of killings when viewed from an ethnic prism, would seem to lend credence to this perception.

[2] JANUARY 16TH 1966:

The coupists failing to gain control of the entire military and political apparatus of political power, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, erstwhile General Officer Commanding, Nigerian Army, and Supreme Commander, rallies loyal troops in Lagos, and puts down the rebellion in Lagos axis. A stalemate ensues between him and Maj. Nzeogwu who remains in control of the Northern axis of the military structure. Nzeogwu mutes the idea of marching down southern Nigeria to fight Gen. Ironsi and dominate the southern axis. Frantic efforts take place behind the scenes by senior military officers like Lt. Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Lt. Col. Alex Madiebo, and Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo, to persuade Maj. Nzeogwu to drop his plan to invade southern Nigeria, rather, to surrender to Gen. Ironsi.

Amid the whole confusion and ongoing negotiations, the Senate President, Nwafor Orizu, who was acting for the president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was out of the country at the material time, handed over the government officially to General Aguiyi-Ironsi, who now became de facto head of state and head of government of Nigeria. The coup had effectively failed. Nzeogwu would later surrender. Major. Ifeajuna and some others fled the country to Ghana.

[3] 17TH JANUARY 1966:

General Ironsi appoints four military governors for the four regions. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, a Lieutenant-Colonel and Oxford University trained historian son of an Igbo millionaire is appointed military governor of the Eastern Region. He would go on to play a pivotal role in the unfolding events prior to, and during the Nigerian/Biafran War.

[4] 24TH MAY 1966 PROMULGATION OF THE PUBLIC ORDER DECREE NO. 34 [UNIFICATION DECREE]:

On the 24th of May 1966, Head of State, General Ironsi, promulgated Decree No. 34 called Public Order Decree. It was also colloquially known as the unification decree. This decree created enormous controversy in the country because one of its key provisions was the abolishment of the regional government structure. In its defense, the government asserted that a military government could only operate through a unitary structure which necessitated the abrogation of the regional government system. Critics of the January Coup interpreted the decree as the definitive proof of an alleged grand plot by the Igbo ethnic nationality to dominate the country in perpetuity.

[5] 29TH MAY 1966:

Widespread resentment, hostility, and suspicion erupts into an orgy of genocidal violence against Igbos and other easterners’ resident in Northern Nigerian cities. Mass killings and destruction of property ensues. There is evidence of some of the mobs being led by army and civil authorities of Northern Nigerian extraction. The first of several waves of pogroms that would kill off about 50,000 Igbos and other Eastern Nigerian ethnic groups resident in Northern Nigeria.

[6] 28TH AND 29TH JULY 1966:

Military officers of Northern Nigerian ethnicities revolt against General Ironsi in what they term “The July Rematch”. The bloodletting and violence in the counter-coup is unprecedented! While the January Coupists went after select military and political targets, the counter-coup was widespread and targeted even the lowliest of officers of Igbo and Eastern Nigerian ethnicities. Over 100 Igbo and Eastern Nigerian military officers are killed. To make matters worse, the counter-coup happens simultaneously with the second wave of pogroms in Northern Nigeria targeting civilians. At this stage, it’s manifest that the municipal, civil, and military officers in Northern Nigeria were working together in coordinating the pogroms.

[7] 1ST AUGUST 1966:

Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Army Staff under General Ironsi, assumes command of the federal military government as Ironsi is effectively deposed and assassinated by military officers of Northern Nigeria extraction in what they termed a ‘revenge coup’ for the January 1966 Coup.

[8] 29TH SEPTEMBER 1966:

Third wave of pogroms peaks in Northern Nigeria. At this point, close to 300,000 Igbos and other Eastern Nigerians have fled the North for the East. Trains were stopped and people pulled out and killed. Airports, markets and government offices were systematically raided for Igbo public officers who were then dragged out and killed.

[9] 4TH AND 5TH JANUARY 1967:

Col. Gowon as the leader of the federal military government and Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the military governor of the Eastern Region, meet at the invitation of Ghanaian military government leaders [ neighboring West African country of Ghana was also under military rule at that time] in the city of Aburi, Ghana, to attempt to resolve lingering issues. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was the only governor of a region, and senior military officer who had not pledged fealty to Gowon who had assumed command of the federal military government after Ironsi’s deposition and assassination.

Col. Odumegwu-John argued that Gowon’s accession to power was unlawful, furthermore the inability of the FG under him to rein in the rioters and genocidal rages in the North directed against Igbos and Northerners did not help to resolve the crises of confidence between the two leaders.

The Aburi Accord is agreed upon and the participants depart to their various locations in Nigeria.

[10] MARCH 10, 1967: SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL MEETING IN BENIN CITY:

The Supreme Military Council meets in Benin and approves the federal government interpreted version of the Aburi Accord. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as military governor of the Eastern Region did not attend the meeting due to the prevailing tensions, atmosphere of hostility, and credible assassination threats flying around in the period. Odumegwu-Ojukwu had also seen a draft resolution of Decree 8 [which would be promulgated after the meeting, a draft which he considered at a fundamental variance with the resolutions already agreed upon at Aburi

[11] MARCH 17TH 1967: PROMULGATION OF DECREE 8 BY THE GOWON LED SMC:

On this day, the FG promulgated Decree 8 which encapsulated its interpretation of the Aburi Accord. The Eastern Region government swiftly rejected Decree 8 as not embodying the agreements enshrined in the Aburi Accord.

Significant clauses that were not part of the original accord like Section 70 and 71 of Decree 8, empowered the FG to declare a state of emergency and legislate in any region if the Head of the Federal Military Government got the concurrence of at least three governors. These two provisions were interpreted by the Eastern Region as aimed at them.

[12] MAY 27TH 1967: CREATION OF 12 STATES BY THE FEDERAL MILITARY GOVERNMENT:

In another move perceived by the Eastern Region as specifically aimed at them, the federal Military Government announced the creation of twelve states out of the existing four regions of Nigeria. The Eastern Region was broken up into three states: Rivers State, South-Eastern State, and East-Central State. This state creation effectively locked the Igbos into the East-Central State and sundered the cultural and political homogeneity of the old Eastern Region.

Governor of the Eastern Region, Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the Eastern Region government and the elite and traditional rulers saw the creation of states as the final act of deception and aggression in the bag of tricks being employed by Col. Gowon. The stage was now set for an epochal dimension in the long-running crisis.

[13] MAY 30TH 1967: DECLARATION OF BIAFRA:

On this day, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the old Eastern Region of Nigeria, as the Republic of Biafra, effectively bifurcating Nigeria into two republics.

[14] JULY 6TH 1967: ‘SHOTS FIRED’ NIGERIA ATTACKS THE NEW REPUBLIC:

In Garkem, a town in Bekwarra Local Government Area of present-day Cross River State, the Nigerian Army 1st Division commanded by Major Mohammed Shuwa attacked a Biafran military base camped around a hill in the town. The first shots are fired in what Gowon had euphemistically called a ‘police action’ to reintegrate the rebels into the Nigerian state. The military conflict starts from this date and rapidly escalates.

[15] 12TH JULY 1967: THE FALL OF GARKEM:

Garkem Town falls to the Nigerian Army

[16] 14th JULY 1967: THE FALL OF NSUKKA:

The iconic city of Nsukka, home to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, rechristened University of Biafra, falls to the Nigerian side.

[17] 29th JULY 1967: THE DEATH OF CHUKWUMA NZEOGWU AND TOM BIGGER:

With the University Town of Nsukka in enemy hands, Biafran forces engage in skirmishes to push them back. In one such skirmish, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, the leader of the 1966 coup is ambushed and killed by soldiers of the Nigerian Army 21 battalion commanded by Captain Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi. A younger sibling of the Biafran leader, Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Tom Bigger Ojukwu, fighting under the banner of Biafra is killed alongside Nzeogwu.

The war comes real to Biafrans with the death of Nzeogwu!

[18] 9TH AUGUST 1967: BIAFRAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE INVADES NIGERIA:

In a very bold and daring move, the Biafran Army launches an expeditionary force with the objective of liberating the Midwestern and the Southwestern regions of Nigeria from the federal government and proclaiming them as independent republics. The force is commanded by Colonel Victor Banjo, whose ancestry is in the southwest. The deputy commander of the expeditionary force is Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna is one of the five majors who executed the January 1966 coup. In some quarters, Ifeajuna is believed to have been the intellectual mind behind the coup. A brilliant but unstable and unreliable character, his dark side would surface again during this campaign

[19] 14TH AUGUST 1967-19th SEPTEMBER 1967: MIDWEST REGION OF NIGERIA BECOMES THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN:

By the 14th of August 1967, the Midwestern Region is completely overrun and in Biafran hands. The Biafran forces declare it autonomous from Nigeria. Major Albert Okonkwo was proclaimed as the military administrator. By the 19th of September, the Midwest Region was declared as an independent republic.

[20] 20th SEPTEMBER 1967: THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN COLLAPSES:

Nigerian forces recapture the city of Benin and the Republic of Benin collapses. The Biafran expeditionary forces beat a hasty retreat in disarray back to Biafra land.

During the retreat, the Biafran forces destroy the Niger bridge to prevent the Nigerian forces from using it to enter Biafra.

[21] 5TH -7TH OCTOBER 1967: THE ASABA MASSACRE:

The Nigerian Army 2nd Division under thecommand of Col. Murtala Muhammed and Major Ibrahim Taiwo enter the city of Asaba. They massacre a lot of the inhabitants calling them Biafran sympathizers. Over a thousand men and boys are machine gunned to death. This would come to be known as The Asaba Massacre.

Most of the people of the city of Asaba and its environs shared kinship with the Igbo, unfortunately, they were in Nigerian geographical territory, so they bore the brunt of the Igbo hatred from the Nigerian forces.

[22] THE INVASION OF PORT HARCOURT: MARCH 8TH-MAY 24TH 1968:

Fighting from the beaches of Oron in today’s Akwa Ibom state, Nigerian forces fight bitterly with the Biafran forces until the city of Port Harcourt is ultimately captured by the 2 Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian Army by May 24, 1968.

The capture of Port Harcourt would be pivotal to the collapse of Biafra, as other cities in the southern part of Biafra rapidly collapsed therein.

[23] MARCH 20, 1968: THE FALL OF ONITSHA:

After a prolonged conflict involving a failed river-based invasion from the Asaba axis of the River Niger, the commercial city of Onitsha falls to the Nigerian forces.

[24] 4TH OCTOBER 1967: THE FALL OF ENUGU:

Fighting from Nsukka from the middle of September 1967, the Nigerian forces advance on and capture the Biafran capital of Enugu by this day. Odumegwu-Ojukwu moves to Umuahia and sets up a new capital in the city of Umuahia.

[25] 31st MARCH 1968: THE BATTLE OF ABAGANA:

On this day, Biafran forces inflict a significant defeat on the Nigerian army 2nd division at the outskirts of the city of Abagana. This will be the second time Colonel Murtala Muhammed would lose a division in the war as the 2nd division of the Nigerian army is practically destroyed by a battalion of Biafran troops commanded by Major Jonathan Uchendu.

[26] APRIL 25, 1969: THE FALL OF OWERRI:

The battle for Owerri lasted almost 8 months with the city changing hands between both sides during the battles and siege-the city was initially captured by the Nigerian forces, was besieged and recaptured by the Biafrans and finally retaken by the Nigerians by April 25, 1969.

[27] 24th DECEMBER 1969: THE FALL OF UMUAHIA. THE BEGINNING OF THE END:

Umuahia which had assumed the capital status for Biafra after the fall of Enugu, falls to the Nigerian forces.

[28] 11th JANUARY 1970: OJUKWU FLIES OUT OF BIAFRA:

With Umuahia now in enemy hands, the total collapse of Biafra was obvious. Assembling a small contingent of military and civilian personnel, Ojukwu goes into exile to Ivory Coast on this date.

[29] 15th JANUARY 1970: BIAFRAN FORCES SURRENDER:

On this day, Major-General Phillip Effiong, General Ojukwu’s deputy, surrenders to the Nigerian armed forces, through Colonel Obasanjo who was the commander of the 3 Marine Commando Division. The war was effectively over and the Biafran secession was over.