Playing Politics: The Saga of the Biafran Child Refugees in Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire during the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–70

Abstract

Abstract:The Nigerian Civil War forced the evacuation of some five thousand Biafran children to Gabon and Cȏte d'Ivoire, where they were camped as child refugees. History has emphasized humanitarian considerations, but newly declassified archival records reveal that acrimonious political interests determined the involvement of various actors in evacuating the children out of Nigeria and in later repatriating them. This article queries the practices by which politicians and others tended to play politics with child refugees of war. Employing a historical approach to politics and twentieth-century humanitarianism, it intersects refugee studies, politics, humanitarianism, and the war by examining the politics of evacuation, repatriation, and resettlement. In the process, it generates new questions about the children's experiences.