Biafra was officially recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, and Zambia while receiving de facto recognition and covert military support from France, Portugal, Israel, South Africa and Rhodesia.

[10][11] After nearly three years of war, during which around two million Biafran civilians died, president Ojukwu fled into exile in Ivory Coast as the Nigerian military approached the capital of Biafra.

Charles W. Thomas defined the locations of islands in the Bight of Biafra as "between the parallels of longitude 5° and 9° East and latitude 4° North and 2° South".

The southern population is predominantly Christian, being primarily made up of territory of the indigenous Yoruba and Igbo states in the west and east respectively.

A newspaper article describes the event: At Jos in 1945, a sudden and savage attack by Northerners took the Easterners completely by surprise, and before the situation could be brought under control, the bodies of Eastern women, men, and children littered the streets and their property worth thousands of pounds reduced to shambles[21]Three thousand Igbo people were murdered in the Jos riots.

The apparent domination of the political system by the North, and the chaos breaking out across the country, motivated elements within the military to consider decisive action.

The federal government, dominated by Northern Nigeria, allowed the crisis to unfold with the intention of declaring a state of emergency and placing the Western Region under martial law.

In September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo civilians were killed and hundreds of thousand more maimed, had their properties confiscated and fled the north, and some Northerners were expelled in backlashes in eastern cities.

[28] Now, therefore, I, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles, recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters shall henceforth be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of "The Republic of Biafra".

After returning to Nigeria, the federal government reneged on the agreement and unilaterally declared the creation of several new states including some that gerrymandered the Igbos in Biafra.

[35] After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (three-quarters of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government,[36][37] Biafran forces under Nigeria's motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished" surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG).

[41] The Republic of Biafra comprised over 29,848 square miles (77,310 km2) of land,[3] with terrestrial borders shared with Nigeria to the north and west, and with Cameroon to the east.

Other nations, that did not officially recognise Biafra, but granted de facto recognition in the form of diplomatic support or military aid, included France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Israel, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Vatican City.

Before he won the 1968 election, he accused Nigeria of committing genocide against Biafrans and called for the United States to intervene in the war to support Biafra.

[61] During the crisis, French medical 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.

French doctor Bernard Kouchner also witnessed these events, particularly the huge number of starving children, and, when he returned to France, he publicly criticised the Nigerian government and the Red Cross for their seemingly complicit behaviour.

These doctors, led by Kouchner, concluded that a new aid organisation was needed that would ignore political/religious boundaries and prioritise the welfare of victims.

[64][65] A 2017 paper found that Biafran "women exposed to the war in their growing years exhibit reduced adult stature, increased likelihood of being overweight, earlier age at first birth, and lower educational attainment.

"[66] The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) emerged in 1999 as a nonviolent Biafran nationalist group, associated with Igbo nationalism.

Though peaceful, the protesters have been routinely attacked by the Nigerian police and army, with large numbers of people reportedly killed.

[71] On 29 May 2000, the Lagos Guardian newspaper reported that the former president Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons, soldiers and officers, who fought for the breakaway Republic of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967–1970 civil war.

[72] In July 2006, the Center for World Indigenous Studies reported that government-sanctioned killings were taking place in the southeastern city of Onitsha, because of a shoot-to-kill policy directed toward Biafrans, particularly members of the MASSOB.

On 17 November 2015, the Abia state police command seized an Indigenous People of Biafra radio transmitter in Umuahia.

[83] According to the South-East Based Coalition of Human Rights Organisations, security forces under the directive of the federal government have killed 80 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and their supporters between 30 August 2015 and 9 February 2016 in a renewed clampdown on the campaign.

[85] The Nigerian military killed at least 17 unarmed Biafrans in the city of Onitsha prior to a march on 30 May 2016 commemorating the 49th anniversary of Biafra's 1967 declaration of independence.

BNL have recorded a series of security clampdowns, especially in the Bakassi where soldiers of 'Operations Delta Safe' apprehended the National Leader, Princewill, in the Ikang-Cameroon border area on 9 November 2016.

The Deputy Leader, Ebuta Akor Takon is an Ejagham native, a tribe in Nigeria and also in significant number in Cameroon.

[104] IPOB has criticized the Nigerian federal government for poor investment, political alienation, inequitable resource distribution, ethnic marginalization, and heavy military presence, extrajudicial killings in the South-Eastern, South-Central and parts of North-Central regions of the country.

In recent years, it has gained significant media attention for becoming a frequent target of political crackdowns by the Nigerian government.

It also has numerous sites and communication channels serving as the only trusted social apparatus educating and inculcating first-hand information and news to its members.