ibadantiti:
1969: Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra

Millions of people face starvation because Nigeria has banned night flights of food aid to Biafra, a breakaway state at war with federal Nigeria.
The Nigerian Federal Government has taken charge of relief operations on both sides of the front line and in doing so has stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from co-ordinating aid to starving civilians.

General Yakubu Gowon, leader of Federal Nigeria, refuses to recognise Biafra which declared independence in May 1967.

His forces have managed to shrink the rebel state to one-tenth of its original size, cutting it off from seaports and other supply lines. Food aid can only brought in from the air.

Nigerian Information Commissioner Chief Anthony Enaharo told representatives of relief organisations in Nigeria's capital, Lagos, that only "authorised relief operators" would be allowed to take in "permissible relief items" for fear of any supplies getting into the hands of Biafran troops.

This means all relief supplies will be inspected by armed forces before being allowed on to Biafra and then only between 0800 and 1700 local time.


There are three million people who are going to starve to death in the next few weeks unless something is done.

Jeremy Thorpe, Liberal Party leader

Acting president of the ICRC, Jacques Freymond, said the world must put pressure on Nigeria to allow his organisation to carry out its humanitarian mission.

In London, more than 80 backbench MPs signed an all-party motion urging the British Government to take action towards resuming the relief operation and to stop selling arms to Nigeria.

The Foreign Secretary, Michael Stewart, said representatives in Lagos would try to mediate between the ICRC and the Nigerian Government.

Yesterday, Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe said he had written to the head of the United Nations, U Thant, asking him to organise a major relief effort with the Red Cross.

He said he was making his appeal independently of the British Government whose involvement in the Nigerian civil war was "immoral".

He told the Times newspaper: "There are three million people who are going to starve to death in the next few weeks unless something is done."

Biafra, under Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, is made up of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria mainly inhabited by Igbo, or Ibo, people.

In September 1966 thousands of the Igbo minority in the Northern Region were massacred by the majority Hausa who resented their relative prosperity.

As a result, a million Igbo refugees settled in the Eastern Region and expelled non-Igbos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_3733000/3733321.stm

T9ksy:



@ bolded....................lol! so ibos were not massacred for killing the sardunna, 9 months earlier?

Inherent revisionism is second nature to you guys. No wonder, no one takes you impish folks serious.

T9ksy:



@ bolded....................lol! so ibos were not massacred for killing the sardunna, 9 months earlier?

Inherent revisionism is second nature to you guys. No wonder, no one takes you impish folks serious.