L
LequteMan
Guest
"It is 50 years since Nigeria's brutal civil war calling for the secession of Biafra started. By the time it ended in 1970 over one million people had perished. Now a new movement has emerged calling for independence."
The BBC is interested in the biafra agitation, again. The renewed calls for secession has caught the attention of the English media.
As a result, a new piece on the agitation has been published by the British media, going deep into the heart of Enugu to interview veteran Biafran soldiers.
(Click on picture to watch the video)
The veterans say Nigerians are treating the Igbos as slaves and want to secede. But this time, they don't want bloodshed.
"We are talking about dialogue, not by fighting," Mr Njoku, one of the veterans, said.
Some are profoundly afraid of where the current rhetoric could lead.
Reverend Moses Iloh worked with the Red Cross during the war.
"The war was one of the crudest you can find," he recalls. "Sometimes there would be more than 50 or 100 children - you would dig a big trench and pour their dead bodies in. I was there. I am not telling you a lie. The suffering was so bad", he said.
Like many Igbos, he supports their ethnic solidarity but sternly warns that any attempts to secede again would be catastrophic.
"Nigerians will not let them go, they will slaughter them - and the whole world will turn their heads and say it's an internal affair."
The people of eastern Nigeria are faced with two choices- stick with the Nigerian government, or foray into an unknown future with Biafra.
The BBC is interested in the biafra agitation, again. The renewed calls for secession has caught the attention of the English media.
As a result, a new piece on the agitation has been published by the British media, going deep into the heart of Enugu to interview veteran Biafran soldiers.
(Click on picture to watch the video)
The veterans say Nigerians are treating the Igbos as slaves and want to secede. But this time, they don't want bloodshed.
"We are talking about dialogue, not by fighting," Mr Njoku, one of the veterans, said.
Some are profoundly afraid of where the current rhetoric could lead.
Reverend Moses Iloh worked with the Red Cross during the war.
"The war was one of the crudest you can find," he recalls. "Sometimes there would be more than 50 or 100 children - you would dig a big trench and pour their dead bodies in. I was there. I am not telling you a lie. The suffering was so bad", he said.
Like many Igbos, he supports their ethnic solidarity but sternly warns that any attempts to secede again would be catastrophic.
"Nigerians will not let them go, they will slaughter them - and the whole world will turn their heads and say it's an internal affair."
The people of eastern Nigeria are faced with two choices- stick with the Nigerian government, or foray into an unknown future with Biafra.
