The Biafran War, fought between the people of Nigeria and the people of Biafra, turned into a genocide that many of the world’s most powerful countries did nothing to prevent. In fact, many of those countries supported the side who brought on the genocide. Biafra was a short lived country that was in a war for practically the entirety of its existence, causing over one million people to lose their lives. Biafra no longer exists as a country today, but rather a territory of Nigeria, taking up about half of the southern coast. The Biafran War was devastating to its citizens, but today, some people still want it to be independent. To understand the situations of the war, one must know why the war started, what happened in it, and which other countries …show more content…
Many of the much more powerful countries did not recognize Biafra, and actually supported what Nigeria was doing. The major other player supporting both Nigeria and the genocide was Great Britain. Although Britain said they were neutral, they supplied the majority of the weapons and ammunition to Nigerian soldiers (Curtis), which they continued to do all throughout the war. They had one main reason for doing that though: oil. Britain feared that, if they did not support Nigeria, their investments in the country would be at risk. When talking about the money Britain made out of Nigeria, the report read: “Shell/BP’s investments amounted to around £200 million, with other British investment in Nigeria accounting for a further £90 million” (Curtis). There was a lot of oil near Biafra, but supporting Biafra would not benefit Britain in the slightest. In fact, Biafra demanded royalties from Shell for taking oil from their land. Shell, of course, refused (Curtis). Britain also supported Nigeria because they wanted to keep Africa the way they carved it out to be, and because, if Biafra gained its independence, they feared other regions would follow. And both the Soviet Union and the United States agreed with those reasons. The Soviet Union sent in soldiers and weapons, albeit not as much as Britain, while America did not really do anything. America wanted the cheap oil, but not to work for it. There were other smaller countries involved in Nigeria’s side, like Egypt, who supplied piolets, but none helped as much as Britain did. France, however, supported Biafra. They provided weapons and ammunition, but not a lot; their support was quite limited (Griffin). France thought that, if Biafra won, they and Biafra would be great allies. But if Nigeria won, they would not have helped Biafra enough to