Friday 21 December 2012

"Biafrans" who still Dream of Leaving Nigeria!



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Forty-two years after the end of the devastating civil war in which government troops fought and defeated Biafran secessionists, the dream of independence has not completely died.


Men sing anthem alongside Biafran flag

Spokes man of a group, which  broke away from the better-known Movement For The Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob)  Edeson Samuel, national chairman of the Biafran Zionist Movement (BZM) told BBC ...."No amount of threats or arrests will stop us from pursuing our freedom - self-determination for Biafrans," 

"We were forced into this unholy marriage but we don't have the same culture as the northerners. Our religion and culture are quite different from the northerners,".



The 1967-70 civil war threatened to tear apart the young Nigerian nation. Ethnic tensions were high in the mid 1960s. The military had seized power and economic hardship was biting.



With the perception that they were pushing to dominate all sectors of society - from business to the civil service - and while they were prominent in the military, the Igbo people were attacked.
Thousands were killed, especially during the clashes between northerners, who are mostly Muslim, and Igbos. To save their lives, Igbos fled en masse back "home" to the east.



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