Nigeria: Civil War

Even as the largest nation on a highly volatile continent, Nigeria has had more than its share of bloodshed in the past few years. When Eastern Nigeria decreed itself a separate nation six weeks ago, most of Nigeria's 57 million people waited with apprehension for another round in the bloodletting. Last week it began. "War, as everybody knows, is a necessary evil," proclaimed a Nigerian government newspaper, the Morning Post, in its "Teachings of Islam" column. Thus, with resignation, federal government forces led by Major General Yakubu Gowon, 32, rolled out of the lush green hills of the Northern...

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