REMEMBERING THE MASSACRE OF CIVILIANS IN ANIOMALAND DURING THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR

Abstract

The Nigerian Civil War was fought between July 30 1967 and January 12, 1970. It claimed the lives of over two thousand non-combatants through the hand of soldiers in Aniomaland, an area of the Midwest dominated by Igbo-speaking groups. It was   separated by the Niger River from Eastern Igboland and it was not part of the Biafra region. In reconstructing that experience by employing oral sources, this piece expects to seal an observed gap on how the activities of both forces in Aniomaland have been portrayed in history. It also adds to the discussion of who did what in Aniomaland and the impact of those incidents not just on the locals, but on humanity at large. It speaks loud about the atrocities of soldiers in conflicts. Through a micro study, it highlights the rotten possibilities of rabid ethnocentrism and the injuries it can inflict on cherished human values.