Insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria and the conflict in the Niger Delta | |||||||||
Separatist presence Government presence Contested | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Nigeria Spillover into Bakassi: Cameroon[1] |
Biafran separatists Oduduwa separatists (only against Fulani herders)[2] | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Bola Ahmed Tinubu (President of Nigeria) Ibrahim Attahiru (Chief of Army Staff) Ibrahim Tukura (Brig. Gen. of 34 Brigade)[8] Hope Uzodinma (Imo State Governor) Abdulkarim Usman[9] (Col. of 302 Artillery Regiment) |
Nnamdi Kanu (POW) (Leader of IPOB) Emma Powerful[10] (IPOB/ESN commander) Chinasa Nworu[10] (IPOB/ESN commander) Simon Ekpa (POW) (leading IPOB member, later BLA and BRGIE leader)[11][12] Asari-Dokubo (Head of BCG) Princewill Chimezie Richard[13] (BNL leader) Innocent Orji[14] (BNG leader) | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
State Security Service[15] Armed Fulani raiders[20] |
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)
Biafra Nations League (BNL)[4]
Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE)[11]
Niger Delta militants[25] Oduduwa Volunteer Force for the Liberation of Southern Nigeria[26] Biafran National Guard (BNG) / Biafran Supreme Military Council of Administration[27][28] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
127 killed (government claim as of Aug. 2021)[29] | Unknown | ||||||||
115 civilians and militants killed (acc. Amnesty International as of Aug. 2021)[29] |
The insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria is a military conflict that broke out in the city of Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria on 16 January 2021, when the Nigerian Army moved to crush the paramilitary wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Eastern Security Network (ESN).[30] The conflict escalated after the ESN managed to repulse the initial push by the Nigerian Army,[16] but IPOB ended the initial crisis by unilaterally withdrawing the ESN from Orlu. After a few weeks of quiet, Nigeria launched a military offensive in the area to destroy the ESN. On 19 February 2021, IPOB declared that as of the day before, a state of war existed between Nigeria and Biafra.[5] Three weeks later, another separatist group declared the formation of a Biafran interim government which was subsequently endorsed by IPOB.[31] Since then, the Biafran separatists have begun to form alliances with other separatist groups in Nigeria and Cameroon. Despite these developments, the separatists claimed that their militant operations were mainly aimed at defending local communities from armed herders and bandits instead of fighting the Nigerian government. In late June, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu was arrested by Interpol and handed over to Nigerian authorities.
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