Word: biafras
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Still another group, the Committee of Returned Volunteers, representing those who have served in the Peace Corps, is calling a meeting at Phillips Brooks House tonight, probably to begin at 8 p.m. to discuss Biafra...
DURING a full year of civil war in Nigeria, the secessionist state of Biafra has banked more on winning the world's sympathy than a military victory. Last week the Biafrans had an undeniable claim to attention-and to pity. Malnutrition was killing off more Biafrans than the Federal troops who occupy most of their land. The chief killer was the protein- deficiency disease called kwashiorkor, which turns the hair to reddish gold and cruelly swells both limbs and stomachs. Workers of international relief agencies reported that as many as 3,000 Biafrans a day were dying and that...
Federal forces have encircled Biafra, the former eastern region of Nigeria. They have occupied its major cities, blockaded its coasts, and pushed an already-overcrowded population of more than 8,000,000-among them 4,500,000 refugees-into a patch of bush and swampland that is one-fourth the size of Biafra's former territory. The Biafrans, most of whom are Ibo tribesmen, fear that they will be massacred just as thousands of their kinsmen in northern Nigerian cities were killed two years ago. Many are starving, but they refuse to come out of hiding in the bush...
...accuses the Biafrans of purposely allowing suffering for the sake of "waging psychological war and seeking diplomatic advantage." The government points out that the Biafrans, led by Lieut. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, have turned down a plan to have the Red Cross ship food through federal territory to Biafra. But Gowon insists on federal handling of any such shipments, and the Biafrans fear that his men would poison the food: they cite instances of beer laced with cyanide and powdered milk infected with bacteria found in Biafra. Even if Gowon allows the shipment, says Biafran Chief Justice Louis Mbanefo, "we would...
...says Ojukwu, to give food at the same time would only "fatten the Biafrans for slaughter with British-made weapons." Meanwhile his countrymen need an estimated 200 tons of protein food a day to survive, and are getting only about 40. Ojukwu insists that the only way to protect Biafra's sovereignty is to fly the food in. He proposes mercy flights during the daytime, but these require the cooperation of federal Nigeria, which has threatened to shoot down the planes. At week's end relief officials were working on another plan: they reported that Gowon...