Word: nigerians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ranged against the rebels now you have a small government army, the Kamajor militiamen, the various U.N. detachments, some Nigerian army units and a detachment of British paratroopers. The big surprise is that Colonel Koroma has switched sides this time, and is fighting to defend the government. But the problem is there may be doubts over how long he'll stay aboard if the other side appears to get the upper hand and he's offered a deal. So it's total chaos: The U.N. doesn't even know where its own people are, the government troops are untrustworthy...
...Barnes: By the time I arrived in the region there was only a small section of Freetown left in the hands of the government and its Nigerian allies. The only way in was through a single Nigerian ECOMOG helicopter that was still flying in. I had to bribe my way onto the last flight of the day. As we flew over the sea, you could see dozens of corpses floating in the bay, and the city burning in the distance...
...making war and downing beers and singing "Goodnight, Irene." At the other end were the government people, not sure if they'd live till morning. And in between, a tiny band of journalists. Outside, the city was on fire, and the few people that managed to straggle through the Nigerian lines that stood between us and the rebels bore horrific tales of torture and mutilation. It was absolute chaos, and everybody was shocked at the level of discipline and training the rebels had shown to fight their way into the city. So there we were, drinking at the bar, eating...
...only by accompanying an ECOMOG patrol that was fighting its way back into downtown. It was too risky to move around alone. After a couple of days the Nigerian troops got their act together and began to retake the city, street by street, in one of the most brutal campaigns I've ever seen. The problem was that nobody knew who the rebels were. Many of them had sneaked into the city unarmed, by joining refugee columns. Then they'd collected weapons that had been stashed in Freetown and simply went berserk. At a certain point the ECOMOG forces appeared...
...Remember, the Nigerians went in because they were in a difficult situation domestically. They wanted to be seen to be doing a good job and make themselves indispensable to the international community partly as a way of deflecting criticism of their military dictatorship. Once they held free elections, they moved pretty quickly to get their troops out of there. What I remember is that the Nigerian military commanders in Freetown were extremely angry at the West, because they lacked the equipment they needed to do the job the West wanted them to do. They needed helicopter gunships, but the West...