May affliction never rise again!
In this article, we look into a huge part of our history that doesn’t get talked about like it should–the African civil wars. Judging by Nigerian standards, most millennials have little or no knowledge of the Biafran Civil war, not even in the school curriculum. You must agree that there must be so much of our history that we know nothing about.
This is enough cue for us to don our history conservators hat and make sure the ones coming behind us are not left in the dark like we were.
Without further ado, here is all you need to know about six of the worst African civil wars:
1. The Sudan Civil War
Sudan, as we now know it, wasn’t always a singular entity; it only became so after the Brits and Egyptians forced North Sudan and South Sudan to merge by granting them joint independence in 1953.
Two polar opposite regions, both in religion, and culture expected to live like siblings. Coupled with the fact that the South Sudanese were seeking autonomy, the war was a no-brainer.
In August 1956, South Sudanese went against central Khartoum in a 16-year long war, had a few months of cease-fire and went on to fight for another 22 years making it 38 years of bloodshed. 38 years of unrest. 38 years of fearing for your life. It must have been tough.
2. Rwanda Civil War
After gaining independence, Rwandans voted their existing Tutsi monarchical government out and another faction called Hutu took over. The Tutsians who had become refugees because of the takeover took revenge in 1990 by starting a war that only ended temporarily in 1993, courtesy of the Organization of African Union.
Yawa gassed back in multiple folds in 1994 when a rocket shot down a plane carrying the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda. The war started afresh and led to the Tutsi genocide.
3. Nigerian-Biafran Civil war
Ethno-religious violence, military coups, tussle over crude oil rights, bad governance and the persecution of the Igbos were all major in the Biafrans’ move to become independent from Nigeria.
This decision led to a 4-year (1966 -1970) face-off between Nigerians and the Biafrans–led by Lt.Odumegwu Ojukwu.
It was the longest four years of any Nigerian alive at that time because people who didn’t die from bullets either died from starvation (the famine strategy was used by the Nigerian government against the Biafrans) or got displaced from their homes.
According to statistics, about 45000- 100,000 military personnel were killed; 2 million Biafrans died from hunger and about 4 million people got displaced.
4. Mozambique Civil War
The Mozambique civil war was a battle of factions over whether to convert the state to a socialist one-party state or not.
This war led to the deaths of over one million Mozambicans and only ended in 1992 when the two leading factions, FRELIMO and RENAMO lost backing from the Soviet Union and South Africa respectively.
5. Liberian First Civil War
President Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor, and Prince Johnson are all three names that get the most frequent mentions in the history of the Liberian civil war.
Charles Taylor snatched power from President Samuel Doe whose dictatorship government had made him lose backing from the US.
Prince Johnson, on the other hand, was a part of Charles Taylor’s group but broke out to fight his own boss for control over Monrovia [capital of Liberia] and also to fight against the Armed forces of Liberia and other factions.
In between the three of them and their power lust, they managed to pioneer a war that took the lives of over 200, 000 Liberians from 1989 to 1997.
6. Uganda Civil War
The Ugandan civil war began because of one man who could not take a taste of his own medicine. Idi Amin, the Ugandan bad boy, overthrew Mbote, Uganda’s president, but was pained when he too was overthrown as a result of the Uganda-Tanzania war.
His loyalists started the Ugandan civil war a.k.a Bush war or Luwero war that caused the deaths of 100,000 to 500,000 Ugandans from 1981 to 1986.
#TraditionalValues is a segment documenting the beauty of indigenous culture. This editions showcases six of the worst African civil wars.
