Word: nigerias
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...well-paid Western pilots who flew into Uli for relief agencies did so at night to avoid marauding MIG-17s and Ilyushin-28 bombers, supplied to Nigeria by the Russians and flown by Egyptian pilots. Food planes from the Portuguese island of Sao Tome, Red Cross flights and gunrunners from Libreville in Gabon circled over the airstrip only briefly, then dropped swiftly through the African darkness for bumpy landings during the ten seconds in which the runway lights were flipped on by a camouflaged control tower. A Nigerian night fighter nicknamed "Genocide" tried to pick them off as they landed...
...countercoup restored power to the Hausas, their choice to lead the government was Yakubu Gowon, who is both a Christian and a member of a minority tribe (see box following page). Gowon tried to stop the pogroms. At the same time, he firmly limited Ibo power by regrouping Nigeria's four regions (North, East, West and Midwest) into twelve smaller units. The Ibo East was gerrymandered into three states, two of which had non-Ibo majorities. The move also deprived the Ibos of control over much of the oil that was making Nigeria rich. Ojukwu, who at the time...
...indication that he foresaw the debacle approaching. He followed a schedule that began at 8 a.m. and often continued until 3:30 a.m. -"I have not been much of a sleeper since I was a child." He pinned his hopes for Biafra's survival on domestic disorders in Nigeria. "Nigeria is a free-for-all," he said. "Gowon's only asset is that he can get British support." Bitterly, Ojukwu described the battles around him as "Mr. Wilson's war for African...
Ojukwu was betting that the centrifugal forces of tribal, religious and economic rivalry would tear Nigeria apart in time to save Biafra. But his men ran out of food before that debatable historical process could run its course. Thousands of them faded into the bush, shed their uniforms and, clad only in shorts, melted into streams of refugees. The Nigerians overran Owerri, the last remaining city of any size (250,-000) in Biafra. Then they pressed on toward Uli with their 122-mm. Soviet cannon, shelling the strip from a range of 13 miles...
...become something of a cliche to note that Biafra's rebellion confronted Nigeria with the same issue that the U.S. faced when the South seceded more than a century ago. The great difference is that the American Civil War had few immediate repercussions outside the U.S.; Nigeria's conflict is certain to strike resonant chords across the continent of Africa for decades to come...