Word: civilizer
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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...fitful sleep, they were escorted to the Dodan military barracks in a suburb of the Nigerian capital. There, in the first formal surrender ceremonies to end a military conflict since World War II, Biafra's Major General Philip Effiong signed a document ending the bitter 31-month civil war that has raged between Nigeria and its breakaway Eastern Region...
...conflict that ended with such stunning swiftness was the first big modern war waged in Black Africa since the continent's colonies began receiving their independence. It was also one of the most devastating civil wars in modern history. At the outset, Biafra's people numbered 12 million-about two-thirds of them Ibo, the rest belonging to minority tribes (as does Effiong, who is an Ibibio). The secessionist territory covered nearly 30,000 sq. mi. and included some of Nigeria's richest land. At the close of the war, 3,500,000 people were squeezed into...
...Nigerians were less affected. Even so, in addition to battle casualties their economy was battered by a war that at its climax was costing the government $1,000,000 a day. "There are no victors in a civil war," B. A. Clark, the Deputy Secretary for Nigeria's External Affairs Ministry, said sadly last week. "Not when the people you have been fighting were classmates or your friends or the man that used to work at the next desk or maybe even your cousin. All wars are bad, but civil wars are hideous...
...become something of a cliche to note that Biafra's rebellion confronted Nigeria with the same issue that the U.S. faced when the South seceded more than a century ago. The great difference is that the American Civil War had few immediate repercussions outside the U.S.; Nigeria's conflict is certain to strike resonant chords across the continent of Africa for decades to come...
...most extreme proponents of secession argue that the present African states are creatures of colonialism and should be dissolved. New nations, based on tribal boundaries, they insist, would be truly legitimate political entities. Such countries, so the argument goes, would be free of the civil strife and rivalries that now plague the continent...