(CNN) -- The leader of the Nigerian secessionist state of Biafra, where haunting images of underfed children caught in a civil war shocked the world, has died at age 78, officials said Saturday. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu died in the United Kingdom, according to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. A government spokesman said Ojukwu died from effects of a stroke. The 1967-1970 Biafra civil war occurred after Yakubu Gowon took power in a coup d'etat in 1966. Ojukwu, than a military governor, and his followers rejected plans for reconciliation following violence against the Igbo people in the north and broke away. "He cited as the principal cause for this action the Nigerian government's inability to protect the lives of easterners and suggested its culpability in genocide, depicting secession as a measure taken reluctantly after all efforts to safeguard the Igbo people in other regions had failed," according to globalsecurity.org, a public policy organization.
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Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu dies at age 78
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He led secessionist state of Biafra in the late 1960s
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Nigeria has history of ethnic division
The war ended in January 1970, when Ojukwu fled and Biafra was reabsorbed by @placeholder.