Anti-Igbo sentiment refers to the existence of hostility against Igbo people, or their culture.
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During the first few years of Nigeria's independence, the Igbo people enjoyed a reputation of affluence and multiregionalism, with Igbo having been employed by the colonial authorities in the public sector of other regions of the country, including Northern Region and Western Region. This aroused the envy of many in the populaces of these regions, who saw the Igbo as a disproportionately-favored ethnic group.[1]
This was further cemented by the short government of Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, whose military junta consisted mostly of Igbo and who abolished the federated regions; this led to his assassination in a counter-coup led primarily by Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba participants. It was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbo in pogroms in the two aforementioned regions, which drove millions of Igbos to their homeland in Eastern Region; ethnic relations deteriorated rapidly, and a separate republic of Biafra was declared in 1967, leading to the Nigerian Civil War.[2]
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