On 7 October 1967, after Biafran forces had advanced into the Mid-West, federal troops entered Asaba, an Igbo-speaking town on the Niger. Suspecting sympathy for Biafra, soldiers looted homes and rounded up unarmed men and boys, then opened fire. Hundreds were killed in a single day, with some accounts giving figures of up to 700.
Survivors tell of families disguising boys as girls to save them. International observers, including British officials who received reports, did not intervene, and the memory of Asaba still marks Igbo consciousness. Memorials include plaques in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and a pepper tree planted by Chief Emma Awolo over a mass grave of his brothers.