Nigerian Civil War

===Atrocities against the Igbos===
[[File:Starving woman africa biafra nigeria conflict famine (cropped).jpg|thumb|A severely malnourished woman during the war.]]
The war cost the Igbos a great deal in terms of lives, money and infrastructure. It has been estimated that up to one million people may have died due to the conflict, most from hunger and disease caused by Nigerian forces.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nigerian Civil War|url=http://www.war-memorial.net/Nigerian-Civil-War--3.140|work=Polynational War Memorial|access-date=2 January 2024 |quote=It has been estimated that up to a million people may have died due to the conflict, hunger and disease.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Biafra: Thirty years on|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm|work=Africa|publisher=BBC News|access-date=4 January 2014|quote=Ethnic split: At independence, Nigeria had a federal constitution comprising three regions defined by the principal ethnic groups in the country – the Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, and Ibo in the south-east. Crowd The fighting led to famine and chaos but as the military took over in the mid-1960s, and the economic situation worsened, ethnic tensions broke out. Up to 30,000 Ibos were killed in fighting with Hausas, and around 1 million refugees fled to their Ibo homeland in the east}}</ref> More than half a million people died from the famine imposed deliberately through blockade throughout the war. Lack of medicine also contributed. Thousands of people starved to death every day as the war progressed.<ref name="Block">Stevenson, "Capitol Gains" (2014), p. 314.</ref> The International Committee of the Red Cross in September 1968 estimated 8,000 to 10,000 deaths from starvation each day.{{sfn|Korieh|2013|p=737}} The leader of a Nigerian peace conference delegation said in 1968 that "starvation is a legitimate weapon of war and we have every intention of using it against the rebels". This stance is generally considered to reflect the policy of the Nigerian government.<ref name="Njoku2013"/><ref>Colin Campbell, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/29/books/starvation-was-the-policy.html Starvation Was The Policy]", ''New York Times'', 29 March 1987.</ref> The federal Nigerian army is accused of further atrocities including deliberate bombing of civilians, mass slaughter with machine guns, and rape.<ref name="Njoku2013">{{cite journal | last1 = Ijeoma Njoku | first1 = Carol | title = A Paradox of International Criminal Justice: The Biafra Genocide | journal = Journal of Asian and African Studies | volume = 48 | issue = 6| year = 2013 }}</ref>