Between July 1967 and January 1970, one of the 20th century’s most horrific wars was fought between the federal government of Nigeria and the breakaway state of Biafra. After it was over, the Israeli Embassy in Lagos estimated that between 500,000 and 750,000 had died on the Biafran side as a result of bombings, executions, massacres and forced starvation of the civilian population.
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Horrific descriptions of the war and the catastrophic humanitarian situation caused by the Nigerian government’s siege of the region, most of whose residents were Igbo people, reached Israel, where it caused great concern in the media and among the public, condemnations and queries in the Knesset, the mobilization of public committees for humanitarian aid and also comparisons to the Holocaust of the Jewish people in Europe.
“Israel has not given military aid to Biafra, neither in training nor in weapons. We have reason to believe that the federal government of Nigeria also knows this.” This is what Haaretz reported on February 22, 1968, quoting the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry. This denial was one of countless such announcements, which were usually accompanied by a claim that the Arab countries were spreading false rumors about Israeli assistance to Biafra with the aim of harming Israel’s relations with the federal government.
Recently, the Israel State Archives opened to the public approximately 40,000 pages of cables related to Israel’s relations with Nigeria that were contained in the Foreign Ministry’s files. Though heavily censored, they reveal that, in addition to the fact that the denials regarding Israeli aid to Biafra were lies, Israel played a double game and provided military and political assistance to the federal government as well. The cables reveal that Israeli support for Biafra was not based on moral considerations, but was intended to promote Israeli political and business interests in Nigeria and in other African countries.
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