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| Colonel Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu led attempts to form the breakaway Republic of Biafra -- the succession struggle resulted in about 1 million deaths |
Fifty years ago, the Igbo people of southeast Nigeria seceded, declaring an independent Republic of Biafra and sparking a brutal civil war that left about one million people dead.
- Coups and secession -
On May 30, 1967, the military head of Nigeria's eastern region, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declares "the independent Republic of Biafra".
