Blockade of Biafra

Common card · No. 358150

The blockade of Biafra or Biafran genocide was a blockade by the Nigerian federal government during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) that resulted in a famine that led to at least 4 million casualties, and ended with the capitulation of the secessionist state of Biafra. The blockade and the ensuing humanitarian crisis stimulated worldwide mobilization and widespread debate about the concept of genocide and whether or not it was appropriate to designate the events which occurred in Biafra as a genocide. Ultimately, it contributed to reform in the law of blockade to protect civilians and the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare in the 1977 amendments to the Geneva Conventions.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Unknown CDC employee (Dr. Lyle Conrad?), Public domain