Word: enugu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...good reason for talking now is that the war has reached an impasse. Nigeria's superbly equipped army of 85,000 men has captured all but one of Biafra's major cities, including the capital of Enugu, squeezing the rebel army of some 35,000 into an interior area only a third as large as the 29,000 sq. mi. that it originally held. Even so, because they fear genocide at the hands of the other Nigerian tribes if they are defeated, the Ibo stubbornly fight on. They have managed to hold Port Harcourt, Biafra's main...
...kept at bay Nigerian troops, who are 25 miles down the channel on Bonny Island. They have mounted gun batteries and trip-wire mines around the channel to discourage a waterborne assault, even venture out in speedboats for raids on Bonny. Biafran guerrillas sneak into their occupied capital of Enugu at night to harry the federal garrison, are battling with rusty Dane guns and cutlasses against a federal division along the Niger River. The Biafrans have also prevented another invasion force dug into the port town of Calabar from crossing a channel and taking the town of Oron. Federal...
...sovereign nation and plunged Nigeria into civil war. No country ever recognized Biafra, and the Nigerian federal navy soon choked its economy with a blockade. By October, federal troops sent to quell the rebellion had captured almost a third of Biafra's territory, including the capital of Enugu, and sent the secessionist government fleeing into the region's rain forests. The surprising fact is that Biafra is still operating as a country, and its government, if less visible, is more vocal than ever...
Three Alternatives. Blaming Biafra's defeats on "the treacherous acts of Gowon's collaborators" within his own army, Ojukwu executed four of his top officers. By then, 3,000 federal troops were roaring across Biafra; in a few days they had reached the outskirts of Enugu and begun shelling it from the high green hills overlooking the capital. "Fathers and mothers," Gowon asked the Eastern Ibos, "rise up and save your loved ones and homes. Lay down your arms, not your lives. The war is against Ojukwu, not against the Ibos...
...Ibos were terrified that further resistance might trigger a huge massacre of the kind that cost them many thousands of deaths in Northern Nigeria last year. As for General Ojukwu, he had to decide whether to surrender and throw himself on Gowon's mercy, stay in Enugu and fight to the death, or flee to the Ibo heartland south of Enugu, where he could carry on a guerrilla war. Whatever choice he makes, Biafra seemed doomed...