Word: enugu
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...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...
...independent country to escape persecution, but few were in a mood to heed its challenge. Four months after Rebel Leader Odumegwu Ojukwu declared Biafra's independence, federal troops under Major General Yakubu Gowon slashed deep into Ibo territory, rained shells down on the Biafran capital of Enugu and sent frightened Biafran soldiers and civilians fleeing by the hundreds. The fall of the tiny breakaway republic (pop. 12 million) seemed only a matter of time...
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...
...whose members last year slaughtered thousands of Ibos in Northern Nigeria. The Biafran volunteers searched automobiles at roadblocks, practiced grenade throwing and ambushing. At a Port Harcourt automotive assembly plant, Biafran engineers rolled out their first homemade tanks-trucks plated with armor. Mechanics in the railroad repair shop at Enugu, Biafra's capital, were busy making bombs for Biafra's lone B-26 bomber out of casings filled with nails, broken bottles and kerosene...