Shadows of Betrayal The Forgotten War Against the Igbos

This book was born from silence — a silence too deep, too painful, and too long sustained. It is the silence of those who witnessed horrors but were never heard, of those who suffered injustice but were never acknowledged. It is the silence that has cloaked one of Africa’s greatest human tragedies: the war on the Igbo people.

The Nigerian-Biafran War (1967–1970) is often framed in textbooks as a civil conflict, but for the Igbos, it was a war for survival. What began as a demand for justice became a humanitarian crisis, a genocide by starvation, and a lesson in the consequences of global indifference.

This book does not aim to stir division or reopen wounds. It seeks to uncover buried truths, honor lost voices, and offer a bridge between remembrance and reconciliation. Through narrative, testimony, and reflection, we walk with the people of Biafra — before, during, and after the war — not as distant observers, but as participants in their enduring legacy.

To remember Biafra is to choose truth over forgetting. And from that truth, to demand a future where no people are left to die in silence again.

Table of Contents

1. The Land Before the Storm

2. Echoes of Empire

3. The Trigger — 1966 Coups and Massacres

4. The Biafran Dream

5. Blood and Oil

6. Weapons of Hunger

7. The Silent Witnesses

8. The Children of the War

9. After the Guns Fell Silent

10. Justice Delayed

11. Remembering Biafra

12. The Way Forward

Back Cover Summary

In the ashes of colonialism and amid the chaos of a young nation, a people cried out for justice — and the world turned away.

This book is a gripping narrative journey through one of the darkest chapters in African history: the Nigerian-Biafran War. Through the eyes of survivors, soldiers, children, and observers, it exposes the deep injustices faced by the Igbo people — from mass killings to starvation, from betrayal by global powers to the painful silence that followed.

Told in a powerful, human-centered voice, this book is not just history — it is remembrance. It is testimony. It is a call to truth, healing, and justice.

A must-read for anyone who believes that history must not be forgotten — and that silence is never neutral.

Preface

This book was born from silence — a silence too deep, too painful, and too long sustained. It is the silence of those who witnessed horrors but were never heard, of those who suffered injustice but were never acknowledged. It is the silence that has cloaked one of Africa’s greatest human tragedies: the war on the Igbo people.

The Nigerian-Biafran War (1967–1970) is often framed in textbooks as a civil conflict, but for the Igbos, it was a war for survival. What began as a demand for justice became a humanitarian crisis, a genocide by starvation, and a lesson in the consequences of global indifference.

This book does not aim to stir division or reopen wounds. It seeks to uncover buried truths, honor lost voices, and offer a bridge between remembrance and reconciliation. Through narrative, testimony, and reflection, we walk with the people of Biafra — before, during, and after the war — not as distant observers, but as participants in their enduring legacy.

To remember Biafra is to choose truth over forgetting. And from that truth, to demand a future where no people are left to die in silence again.