5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE BIAFRA-NIGERIA WAR
60s Rock-Legend Jimi Hendrix at the height of his career in 1968 performed at a Biafra war benefit show in Manhattan along with 60s folk singer Joan Baez. Both artists performed free of charge in order to raise money for refugees of the Biafra-Nigeria Civil war. Photo Joan Baez and Jimi Hendrix chat between acts at a Biafran Relief Benefit. https://www.theguardian.com
The Biafran side largely engineered and manufactured their own weaponry. They received only non-political Joint Church Aid assistance. Nigeria, on the other hand was aided by both Russia (then the Soviet Union), and the North-Atlantic Alliance (particularly Nigeria’s former colonial master, Britain)—as well as by much of Muslim North Africa, with Egyptian pilots flying Russian-made MIGs against the breakaway enclave which had no air force of its own.
https://www.jstor.org/
During the war between 500,000 3,000,000 refugees fled the county.
John Lennon rejects MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) title from the queen in protest of Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria Biafra war. Britain heavily backed Nigerian forces to support British oil interests. https://www.bbc.co.uk/
In 1969 Biafra appealed unsuccessfully for support from the Organisation of African Unity, which member states generally did not want to support internal secessionist movements, although they received the support of African countries such as Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185729