How historical injustices tie Britain to Nigeria’s crisis

The UK aided Nigeria in various areas, including security and development, yet its involvement in the Biafran War has been controversial and has been criticised by some for supporting a government that was responsible for human rights abuses, and famine during the conflict.

For almost a decade, the Nigerian military has conducted a clandestine abortion programme in the country’s northeast. Since at least 2013, its iron-fist campaign has ended more than 10,000 pregnancies. Many of its victims were kidnapped, and raped by Islamist militants. The abortions were carried out without consent and around thirty-three women and girls who were pregnant were given mysterious injections and pills by uniformed soldiers.

Among the targeted have been children, killed on suspicion of being offspring or supporters of the insurgents. But when an investigation was called for by the United Nations, the US, the UK, and Germany, the military denied such human rights abuses had occurred.

The British government officials believe there is “chronic corruption” amongst Nigeria’s security forces and that many of the human rights accusations against them are “true.” British troops have stationed themselves in the west African former colony to help battle Boko Haram.

Nigeria is a large country situated in the West African region with many human rights challenges.

The Biafran War, also known as the Nigerian Civil War, was a conflict that took place in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970. It was triggered after the eastern region of Nigeria declared itself the Independent Republic of Biafra, leading to a civil war between Biafran forces, and the Nigerian government.

The British government played a significant role in the Biafran War, as the UK was a major supplier of military equipment to the Nigerian government during the conflict. The UK also provided diplomatic support to the Nigerian government, and helped to broker the peace agreement, which put an end to the war.

The Boko Haram crisis in north-eastern Nigeria has internally displaced over two million people within Nigeria. Families have been separated, have lost the freedom of movement, loss of property, food insecurity, and much more.

Fifty years to the war, declassified British files now show that under former UK prime minister, Harold Wilson’s government secretly armed and backed Nigeria’s aggression against the secessionist region. The Labour government provided large quantities of weapons to the Nigerian federal government which had destroyed an attempt by the country’s eastern region of Biafra, to gain independence.

The British supplied around 40,000 more mortar bombs, 20,000 rifles, 36 million rounds of ammunition every month, 2,000 machine guns, helicopters, amongst others.

However, while in the present, support remains in the background to curtail those abuses that have now emerged, whether that support has any meaningful impact is suspect.

Currently, armed, and security forces continue to commit crimes off the radar of international law and in north-eastern Nigeria.