USSR Military Assistance to the Federal Government During the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)

Abstract

Drawing on newly available documents from the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation (AVP RF) the author closely examines Soviet-Nigerian military and technical cooperation during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). He focuses on the following issues: the extent of Soviet assistance to the war efforts by the Federal Military Government (FMG) of Nigeria, how Soviet weapons were used in combat operations, what effect military aid had on Soviet-Nigerian relations. On 30th May 1967, the southeastern provinces of Nigeria attempted to secede as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra. This caused the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). The head of the FMG general Yakubu Gowon had to apply the USSR for military assistance. The USSR did not recognize the break-away region. The author argues that there were three Soviet-Nigerian arms deals in 1967–1969. The quantity of military hardware and small arms supplied to the FMG remains a guarded secret, and the author had to rely on the declassified CIA intelligence and other published sources. Soviet military personnel in Nigeria, mostly pilots and aviation specialists, strictly adhered to the rule: do not commit acts that might have involved the Soviet Union in the Nigerian conflict. During the war, Soviet-Nigerian relations rose from virtually zero to a fairly high level. However, military assistance did not turn Nigeria into a Soviet ally. Nigerian foreign policy did not change fundamentally, it was still dominated by the Western vector.