![]() Eleven years later, Cross River state was divided with western Cross River being broken off to form the new Akwa Ibom state. At the war's end and the reunification of Nigeria, the South-Eastern state was reformed until 1976, when it was renamed Cross River state. Calabar and its port was hard-fought over in Operation Tiger Claw, while the people from Cross River state were persecuted by the Biafran forces as they were mainly non-Igbos. Less than two months afterwards, the Igbo-majority of the former Eastern Region attempted to secede as the state of Biafra in the three-year long Nigerian Civil War. ![]() Īfter independence in 1960, the area now regarded as Cross River state was a part of the post-independence Eastern Region until 1967, when the region was split and the area became part of the South-Eastern state. After the merger, much of the modern-day Cross River state has become a center of anti-colonial resistance during the Women's War and trade, through the international seaport at Calabar. Around the same time, the protectorate (now renamed the Niger Coast Protectorate) was incorporated into the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which later merged into British Nigeria. The latter become a British protectorate in 1884, as the capital of the Oil Rivers Protectorate but it was in the early 1900s that the Britons gained formal control of the entire area. In the pre-colonial period, what is now Cross River state was divided between its ethnic groups with some joining the Aro Confederacy, while the Efik founded the Akwa Akpa (Old Calabar) city-state. Ogoja, Bette, Igede, Ukelle (Kukele) of the northern region. Modern-day Cross River state has been inhabited by several ethnic groups for hundreds of years, primarily the Efik of the riverside south and Calabar the Ekoi (Ejagham) of the inland south the Akunakuna, Boki, Bahumono, and Yakö (Yakurr) of the central region and the Bekwarra, These wildlife reserves contain populations of Preuss's red colobus, African forest buffalo, bat hawk, tree pangolin, grey-necked rockfowl, and West African slender-snouted crocodile, along with some of Nigeria's last remaining Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, drill, African forest elephant, and Cross River gorilla populations. In the forested interior of the state are several biodiverse protected areas including the Cross River National Park, Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, and Mbe Mountains Community Forest. Other important rivers are the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers, which flow from the inland Oban Hills, before flanking the city of Calabar and flowing into the Cross River Estuary as well. The most major geographical feature is the state's namesake, the Cross River, which bisects the state's interior before forming much of the state's western border, and flowing into the Cross River Estuary. The smaller ecoregions are the Central African mangroves in the coastal far south and a part of the montane Cameroonian Highlands forests in the extreme northeast. Geographically, the state is mainly divided between the Guinean forest–savanna mosaic in the far north and the Cross–Sanaga–Bioko coastal forests in the majority of the interior of the state. Of the 36 states in Nigeria, Cross River state is the nineteenth largest in area and 27th most populous, with an estimated population of over 3.8 million as of 2016. Originally known as the South-Eastern State before being renamed in 1976, Cross River state formerly included the area that is now Akwa Ibom state, which became a distinct state in 1987. Its capital is Calabar, it borders to the north through Benue state, to the west through Ebonyi state and Abia state, and to the southwest through Akwa Ibom state, while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon. Named for the Cross River, the state was formed from the eastern part of the Eastern Region on. Cross River State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
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