Nigerian Civil War

===Ethnic minorities in Biafra===
Ethnic minorities (Ibibio, Ijaw, Ikwerre, Etche, Ogoni and others) made up approximately 40% of the Biafran population in 1966.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Omaka|first=Arua|date=2014-02-17|title=The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970|url=https://encompass.eku.edu/jora/vol1/iss1/2|journal=Journal of Retracing Africa (JORA)|volume=1|issue=1|pages=25–40|issn=2168-0531}}</ref> The attitude of ethnic minorities in Biafra towards the conflict were initially divided early in the war, having suffered the same fate as Igbos in the North held the same fear and dread as Igbos.<ref>Akpan, Ntieyong U. The Struggle for Secession, 1966–1970: A Personal Account of the Nigerian Civil War. (2nd ed.). online: Routledge. p. 152, {{ISBN|0714629499}}.</ref> However, actions by Biafra authorities suggesting they favoured the Igbo majority turned these attitudes negative.<ref>Akpan, Ntieyong U. The Struggle for Secession, 1966–1970: A Personal Account of the Nigerian Civil War. (2nd ed.). online: Routledge. p. 152, "The first evidence came when the East started to recruit young men into the army. Thousands from all over the Region turned up daily for recruitment. While the Ibo candidates were regularly selected, scarcely any from non-Ibo areas were recruited." {{ISBN|0714629499}}.</ref> Great suspicion was directed towards ethnic minorities and opponents of Biafra, with 'combing' exercises conducted to sift these communities for saboteurs, or 'sabo,' as they were commonly branded.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Omaka |first=Arua Oko |title=The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 |journal=Journal of Retracing Africa |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=2014 |pages=25–40 |url=http://encompass.eku.edu/jora/vol1/iss1/2 }}</ref> This brand was widely feared, as it generally resulted in death by the Biafran forces or even mobs.<ref>"William Norris of the ''London Times'' who visited Biafra, also reported an eyewitness account in which some of the great men of Ibibio ethnic origin were beaten to death at Umuahia on April 2, 1968. These Ibibios who included old men and young men were apparently suspected of collaborating with advancing Nigerian troops. They were reportedly frog-marched across an open space while the local people attacked them with sticks and clubs."</ref> The accusations subjected entire communities to violence in the form of killings, rapes, kidnapping and internments in camps by Biafran forces.<ref>Graham-Douglas, Ojukwu's Rebellion, p. 17. "Some six thousand Rivers people were sent to different refugee camps in the Igbo hinterland."</ref> The Biafran Organization of Freedom Fighter (BOFF) was a paramilitary organisation set up by the civil defence group with instructions to suppress the enemy, and engaged in "combing" exercises in minority communities.<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 | publisher=African Tree Press | isbn=978-1592320134 | url=http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=jora | first=Arua Oko | last=Omaka | journal=Journal of Retracing Africa | volume=1 | issue=1 | date=February 2014 | access-date=25 October 2020 | pages=25–40 }}</ref><ref>The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970, http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=jora "The sabotage accusation was not limited to the non-Igbo. The Onitsha people who were indisputably Igbo also suffered the same intimidation and humiliation. Many of their prominent leaders were said to have been detained by the Ojukwu-led government for allegedly contributing to the fall of Onitsha and Enugu"</ref>

Minorities in Biafra suffered atrocities at the hands of those fighting for both sides of the conflict. The pogroms in the north in 1966 were indiscriminately directed against people from Eastern Nigeria.<ref name="ReferenceB">Elechi Amadi, author of ''The Concubine'' and ''The Great Ponds'', recalls in his memoir ''Sunset in Biafra'' his time in a Biafran detention camp. He and other ethnic minorities were imprisoned and tortured for their real or perceived support for the Federal Side.</ref> Despite a seemingly natural alliance between these victims of the pogroms in the north, tensions rose as minorities, who had always harboured an interest in having their own state within the Nigerian federation, were suspected of collaborating with Federal troops to undermine Biafra.<ref name="Saro-Wiwa, Ken 1992">Saro-Wiwa, Ken, ''Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy'', Saros International Publishers, Port Harcourt, 1992, {{ISBN|1-870716-22-1}}, "Port Harcourt was the last place whose fall led the inhabitants being treated as saboteurs, and so cruelly treated. I went to Igrita shortly after the fall of Port Harcourt and was terribly shocked by the number of bodies being carted into mass graves—bodies of person killed not by bullets but by cruel handling, and not by soldier but by frenzied and ill-motivated civilians," quoting ''The Struggle for Succession, 1966–1970: A Personal Account of the Nigerian Civil War,'' Routledge (14 January 2014).</ref> The Federal troops were equally culpable of this crime. In the Rivers area, ethnic minorities sympathetic to Biafra were killed in the hundreds by federal troops. In Calabar, some 2000 Efiks were also killed by Federal troops.<ref name="encompass.eku.edu">''The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970'', African Tree Press (18 February 2007) 978-1592320134 http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=jora "The Nigerian Air Force left their own mark in the minorities' areas. They were accused of indiscriminate bombing of civilian occupied areas. William Norris of the ''London Sunday Times'' in an article titled, "Nightmare in Biafra," reported how the high-flying Russian Ilyushin jets dropped bombs in civilian centers in Biafra. He stated that, 'Slowly, but effectively, a reign of terror has been created'."</ref> Outside of the Biafra, atrocities were recorded against the residents of Asaba in present-day Delta State by both sides of the conflict.<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal|jstor=722748|quote=Similarly, on 20 September 1967, 'there was a mass killing of non-Ibo MidWesterners at Boji-Boji Agbor', and on 23 September, 'non-Ibo speaking MidWesterners were apprehended by rebel soldiers at Asaba, Ibusa and Agbor and taken [in two lorries] to a rubber plantation along Uromi-Agbor road and massacred|title=The Biafran Crisis and the Midwest|journal=African Affairs|volume=86|issue=344|pages=367–383|last1=Orobator|first1=S. E.|year=1987|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097919}}</ref><ref name="vanguardngr.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/revisiting-1967-asaba-massacre/|title=Revisiting The 1967 Asaba Massacre|first=Emmanuel|last=Okogba|date=29 October 2016}}</ref>