Biafra leader buried: Nigerian funeral

THE funeral of the late leader of Nigeria’s breakaway republic of Biafra was held yesterday.

Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, 78, was buried in Nnewi in the country’s southeast. He died in a London hospital on 26 November after a stroke.

Mr Ojukwu led Biafra during a three-year civil war sparked by a 1966 coup in the former British colony six years after independence. The coup was led by Igbo army officers in the southeast. The coup failed, but sparked riots in which an estimated 10,000 died. Many Igbos fled back to the southeast where Oxford-educated Mr Ojukwu was governor. In 1967, he declared the Republic of Biafra, sparking civil war, and food shortages. Images of starving Biafran children shocked the world. Biafra was crushed and Mr Ojukwu exiled.