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Biafran surrender, 1970
Biafra surrendered after a war and blockade that caused widely cited deaths exceeding one million.
What happened
Biafra surrendered on 13 January 1970 after nearly three years of civil war and blockade; total deaths are widely cited as exceeding one million.[1]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: The Nigerian Civil War (also called the Biafran War) was fought between July 1967 and January 1970 after Nigeria's federal government, led by General Yakubu Gowon, launched a full-scale invasion of Biafra on 6 July 1967; a Nigerian naval blockade that restricted food, medical supplies and weapons contributed to severe humanitarian consequences, with total deaths from combat and the resulting famine widely cited as exceeding one million, a figure presented here as a commonly cited estimate rather than an independently verified count. Biafra surrendered on 13 January 1970, and Nigeria reincorporated the territory.
- Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) (BlackPast.org) link, War course, blockade and surrender sections. Source record