Onitsha

Town in Anambra State, Nigeria, on the east bank of the Niger River, north of its delta; population (2007 est) 591,500. The main industries are brewing, and the manufacture of textiles and metal goods.

The town of Asaba on the western bank is connected by road to Lagos, and a bridge was completed in the mid-1960s. Both town and bridge were extensively damaged as a result of the civil war (1967–71), when Onitsha became a strategic centre on the Biafran frontier.

Onitsha grew up as a market town where the ferry connecting east and west Nigeria met the river trade from the coast. Tapping the densely populated Ibo hinterland to the east and exploiting the Niger as a trade artery, it developed during the 19th and 20th centuries to become one of the biggest markets in West Africa.