Biafra Genocide: Nigeria: Bloodletting and Mass Starvation, 1967-1970 (Cold War 1945-1991) - Softcover

Venter, Al J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 152672913X ISBN 13: 9781526729132

Publisher: Pen & Sword Military, 2018

Synopsis

One of the great tragedies of Africa is not only the fact that a million people-mostly civilians and a large proportion of them children-died in one of Africa's first post-independence wars, but that until it happened the world thought Nigeria was immune from the wasting disease of tribalism. It certainly was not because the Biafran War is still the most expansive tribal conflagration that the continent has experienced-barring perhaps the ongoing Great Lakes conflict-involving the forces of East and West, only this time, with the British siding with the Soviets. Worse, some of the religious differences that emerged before and after that dreadful carnage are still with us today. During the course of hostilities that lasted almost four years, a lot of other shortcomings surfaced in Africa's most populous nation, including the kind of corruption that, until then, had always been linked to countries rich in oil. Disunity, incompetence and instability-from which Nigeria never really recovered-also emerged. Two bloody army coups followed after the rebels capitulated, together with an appalling series of massacres, mostly of southern Christians by Muslim northerners. Half a century later the slaughter continues.

About this title

About the Author

Al J. Venter is a specialist military writer who has had over fifty books published. He started his career with _International Defence Review,_ covering military developments in the Middle East and Africa. He has been writing on insurgencies across the globe for half a century, involved with Jane's Information Group for more than thirty years. He was a stringer for the BBC, NBC News, as well as London's _Daily Express_ and _Sunday Express_. He branched into television work in the early 1980s, producing more than a hundred documentaries, including _Africa's Killing Fields_, on the Ugandan civil war, and _AIDS: The African Connection_, which was nominated for a Pink Magnolia Award. His last major book, _Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa_, was nominated for New York's Arthur Goodzeit military history book award. Venter writes extensively for several Pen & Sword military history series including 'Cold War 1945-1991', 'Death Squads' (on massacres and genocides) and 'Architects of Terror'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 152672913X
• ISBN 13: 9781526729132
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128