Nigerian Civil War

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and the Declaration of Biafra

Explore chukwuemeka odumegwu ojukwu and the declaration of biafra. Key context, events, and legacy

Escape by Night: A Mother’s Flight from the Biafran War Frontlines

The night did not begin as a plan. It began as a smell, kerosene and cassava turned bitter by fear, and the low animal...

The Orphans of the Nigerian Civil War: Finding a New Home

They arrived in twos and threes, sometimes in silent lines led by a nun with dust on her veil, sometimes on the backs of...

The Airlift Pilot Who Risked His Life to Feed Biafra

The runway did not exist until nightfall. By day, it looked like a scar in the bush, two miles of blacked-out tarmac called Uli,...

Letters from the Biafran War Front: A Soldier’s Last Words Home

The envelope was small, browned at the edges, its flap sealed with a smear of sweat and the careful pressure of a thumb. Inside,...

School in the Bush: Learning Under Bombs in Biafra

The classroom was a circle of slippers pressed into red earth, a handful of battered slates, a handful of children’s faces smudged with grime...

The Hidden Kitchen: Secret Food Networks During the Nigerian Civil War

The first story comes wrapped in steam. It is night in 1969, and a young woman named Nkem kneels over a three-stone fire beside...

The Boy Who Walked 100 Miles to Escape the Biafran War Zone

He walked with bare feet that blistered at every rocky turn, his small knuckles white as he gripped his mother’s worn kerchief in one...

Brothers at War: A Family Divided by the Nigerian Civil War

The first time the brothers realized they now belonged to different countries, they were standing on opposite banks of the River Niger, separated by...

A Nurse’s Diary from the Biafran War: Treating the Wounded in Makeshift Hospitals

The air in the makeshift operating theater was thick with sweat, fear, and the pungent scent of antiseptic, or was it just boiling cassava...