The Nigerian Revolution and The Biafran War by Alexander A. Madiebo
Before I came to Biafra, I was told that Biafrans fought like heroes. But now I know that heroes fight like Biafrans
French Deputy Ambassador Raymond Offroy
In the late 1960s, the attention of the world was drawn to the sufferings and courage of a group of people who, for thirty months, under a total blockade and with little more than their will to survive, waged a civil war against Nigeria. The Commander of the Biafran Army, Major General Alexander A. Madiebo (now retired) has drawn directly from his war diary to record in detail the prosecution of the war from the initial battles around Ogoja and Nsukka to the final drive through the “Ibo Heartland” and the collapse of the Biafran forces following the recapture of Owerri.
As Commander of the Nigeria Army Artillery Regiment prior to the outbreak of the war, the author was also an eye witness of the two coups of January and July 1966 and the uprisings in the North that preceded and then followed abruptly upon the second coup claiming so many lives. His own escape to the East is an adventure story in itself and his simple, straightforward narration of the events of those four years provides a wealth of new information and personal insight into that clouded period of Nigerian history.