The American-Jewish emergency efforts to the Biafran cause

Abstract

The outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967 challenged the conscience of the world especially the sufferings of the people of Eastern Nigeria. This was especially so with regard to the Federal Government food blockade. At the height of this development, theAmerican Jewish Emergency Efforts to Biafran Reliefwas formed as a way of combating the humanitarian problem during the civil war. This paper evaluates the rationale for the support given by the American–Jewish Association to the Biafran struggle. It relies on the archival material mainly of the Joint Church Aid Archives (JCAA) now made available online and other published secondary material in journals and books using the historical descriptive method of analysis for its interpretation of events.