“Biafran Side Blocked Aid to Dying Igbo Civilians, War Casualties Not in Millions” – Gowon

Former Nigerian military ruler Yakubu Gowon has stirred fresh controversy over the Nigerian Civil War, claiming that Biafran forces obstructed humanitarian aid from reaching civilians and disputing widely accepted casualty figures. In an interview with ARISE TV, Mr. Gowon stated, “The number of people who were casualties of the war is not in millions. The other side also refused all attempts to send aid into their camp.”

Now 90, Mr. Gowon led Nigeria from 1966 to 1975 and oversaw the federal campaign during the war against the secessionist Republic of Biafra, which lasted from July 1967 to January 1970. Although estimates place the death toll at around three million, largely due to starvation and targeted attacks on civilians in the Eastern Region, Mr. Gowon dismissed these figures.

“I had a responsibility and duty as a loyal Nigerian to keep the country whole,” he said, reiterating that the war was not against the Igbo people but aimed at preventing Nigeria’s disintegration. “From the beginning, I ensured that this was not a war against Igbos as such, but one to stop the breaking up of Nigeria.”

He further claimed that Nigerian soldiers were under strict orders to protect civilians. “I gave a code of conduct of how the operations were to go; soldiers on the Nigerian side were to protect the people, especially women and children, and take up arms only against those who had taken arms against them.”

Despite the war’s brutal legacy and accounts of atrocities committed by federal forces, Mr. Gowon has continued to defend the decisions taken under his command. He recently described the civil war era as the most difficult period of his life.

Though Nigeria’s post-war reconciliation remains incomplete, some figures, including Labour Party leader Peter Obi, have commended Mr. Gowon’s wartime leadership, portraying him as a patriot who sought to preserve the nation’s unity.

The civil war, sparked by the Eastern Region’s declaration of independence, ended in 1970 with Gowon’s proclamation of “no victor, no vanquished” – a gesture meant to initiate healing but one that many argue has yet to be fully realised.