Biafra. Just the name conjures up visions
of the dreadful Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s in which two million
civilians died, many from starvation, as the federal government blockaded the southern province which
wanted to break away.
Now the Nigerian government is
trying to shut down Radio Biafra, a pirate radio station broadcasting from the
region. The government says it has ‘successfully jammed’ the station, but
reporters in Nigeria say it is still broadcasting.
It targets the Igbo, who still feel
they are discriminated against by the northern Nigerians, transmitting
phone-ins and attacks on the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, and other
government figures.
Independence for Biafra is still
being demanded by a group called the Movement for the Actualisation of a
Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob), and a number of its leaders and
sympathisers have been arrested.
