Israel, Nigeria and the Biafra Civil War, 1967–1970

Introduction This chapter analyzes Israeli policy toward the Nigerian civil war, exploring Israel’s relations with both the Federal Military Government of Nigeria (FMG) and separatist Biafra. Israel encountered obstacles in Nigeria that turned that country into one of the most difficult tests of its African statecraft. The most severe challenge Israel faced in Nigeria was the 1967 Biafran secession, the product of Nigeria’s acute political and ethnic conflicts. By that time, Israel had begun to sell Nigeria military equipment on a modest scale and hoped to heighten security ties in order to further consolidate relations with that government. The civil war forced Israel to choose between the expansion of ties with Nigeria, an exigency of realpolitik, and the moral imperative of aiding a people whose plight was, for many Israelis, a disturbing reminder of recent Jewish experience. While the literature on the Nigerian civil war affords some insight into Israel’s policy toward that conflict, files made available by the Israel state archives (restrictions notwithstanding) comprise the material most salient to this study. That documentary record reveals that Israel transferred arms to Nigeria while at the same time secretly providing assistance to the Biafrans.