Biafra Flag
*Biafra was founded on this date in 1967. Officially, the Republic of Biafra was a partially recognized state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970.
Early modern maps of Africa from the 15th to the 19th centuries, drawn from accounts written by explorers and slave traders, show references. According to the maps, the Europeans used the word Biafarato to describe the region of today's West Cameroon, including an area around today's Equatorial Guinea. The German publisher Johann Heinrich Zedler, in his encyclopedia of 1731, published the exact geographical location of the capital of Biafra in today's Cameroon.
The words Biafara and Biafares also appear on maps from the 18th century around Senegal and Gambia. Its territory was the former Eastern Region of Nigeria, predominantly inhabited by the Igbo ethnic group. Biafra was established by Igbo military officer and Eastern Region governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu under his presidency, following a series of ethnic tensions and military coups after Nigerian independence in 1960 that culminated in the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom.
The Nigerian military proceeded to reclaim the territory of Biafra, resulting in the start of the Nigerian Civil War. Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia officially recognized Biafra while receiving lip service recognition and covert military support from France, Portugal, Israel, South Africa, and Rhodesia. After nearly three years of war, during which around two million Biafran civilians died, president Ojukwu fled into exile in Ivory Coast as the Nigerian military approached the capital of Biafra. Philip Effiong became the second president of Biafra, overseeing the surrender of Biafran forces to Nigeria.
Igbo nationalism became a strong political and social force after the Civil War. It has grown more militant since the 1990s, calling for the revival of Biafra. Various Biafran secessionist groups have emerged, such as the Indigenous People of Biafra, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, and the Biafra Zionist Front. On June 24, 2024, the Organization of Emerging African States, OEAS, endorsed the referendum. BRGIE intends to issue a "declaration of the restoration of the independent state of Biafra" on December 2, 2024, at the 2024 Finland convention.
A former U.S. Congressman, Jim Moran, advocates for Biafra independence under the BRGIE with a contract that has been in effect since June 15, 2024. In emulation of Lithuania's historical part of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania that restored Lithuania in 1990, the Biafra Restoration Declaration Act used the term "Declaration of the Restoration of the Independent State of Biafra" adopted. The recruitment process for the drafting board responsible for the restoration of the Declaration of Independence was opened on January 2, 2024.
