In the fall of 1968, a civil war broke out between the Hausa and Ibo tribes in the Biafra region of northern Nigeria, Africa. A Nigerian government soldier stood by and looked down on an Ibo Biafra soldier who had fallen and been killed in battle.

　　In the fall of 1968, a civil war between the Hausa and Ibo tribes erupted in the Biafra region of northern Nigeria, Africa. A Nigerian government soldier stands by and looks down on a fallen Ibo Biafran soldier The Biafra War, which broke out between 1967 and 1970, was the first war in Africa to be widely reported by Western journalists.Images of bloody bloodshed between rival ethnic groups in Nigeria and children with bloated bellies shocked the world.

　　The Biafra War, which raged from July 6, 1967, to January 15, 1970, was dubbed the Nigerian Civil War. It was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the separatist Republic of Biafra, which declared independence from Nigeria on May 30, 1967. Biafra represented Igbo nationalism. Nigerian government forces besieged Biafra, and in the ensuing stalemate, a deliberate blockade was imposed, resulting in the mass starvation of Biafran civilians. Nigeria had three major ethnic groups: the Hausa in the north, the Yoruba in the west, and the Ibo in the east. Nigeria was colonized by British troops in 1912; on October 1, 1960, Nigeria was officially declared an independent country with its own borders and federal system, but internal divisions were intense.

　　On December 24, 1969, the Nigerian federal army launched a massive offensive that began the final collapse of Biafra. Biafra ran out of ammunition, the people were destitute of food, and the Biafran leaders controlled only one-sixth of the 1967 territory. Ojukwu fled to Cote d'Ivoire on January 11, 1970, and the Biafran delegation formally surrendered in Lagos four days later, bringing an end to the Republic of Biafra and its reintegration into Nigeria. Between 500,000 and 3 million people died in the Nigerian Civil War, including deaths on the battlefield, ethnic cleansing, and starvation. French doctors who participated in the Biafra War broke the International Red Cross' principle of silence to criticize Nigerian government forces; on December 22, 1971, 13 French doctors and journalists founded Doctors Without Borders (MSF).