At least 10 officers were killed during an ambush by ethnic militias opposed to the ruling junta, reports say. Elsewhere in the country, dozens of civilians were killed in a military assault on protesters.

The "federal character" is a principle, which was enshrined in Nigeria's Constitution since 1979 to ensure that appointments to public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the country. As it is, it seems to be missing in our federation. The multi-award-winning columnist and Executive Head of The Guardian's Editorial Board, Martins Oloja, takes an analytical look at this issue in the latest installment of Inside Stuff. ⁣⁣⁣⁣

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War and the Nigerian-Biafran War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Biafran people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963.