Biafra Zionist Movement Biafra Zionist Movement Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) is a group agitating for the restoration of Biafra and its independence from Nigeria. It is led by Benjamin Onwuka, who is currently being detained by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The philosophy of the movement is for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra along the precolonial lines. Biafra was a loose collection of different ethnic groups before the coming of the Europeans to colonize Africa. Biafra and the Bight of Biafra was notorious for the Transatlantic slave trade with two Slave ports in Calabar and Bonny and providing over 2
History of Nigeria civil war. On 29 May 1967, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu, the military governor of the eastern region who emerged as the leader of increasing Igbo secessionist sentiment, declared the independence of the eastern region as the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967. The ensuing Nigerian Civil War resulted in an estimated 3.5 million deaths (mostly from starving children) before the war ended with Gowon's famous "No victor, no vanquished" speech in 1970. Following the civil war, the country turned to the task of economic development. The U.S. intelligence community concluded in November 1970 that "...The Nigerian Civil War ended