Word: nigerias
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Last spring, while Nigeria teetered on the brink of civil war, a diplomat experienced in African affairs, commented, "If Nigeria goes, there is no hope for the rest of Africa...
...Nigeria went four months ago. On May 30 the Ibo tribe, which dominates Nigeria's Eastern Region, seceded from the Nigerian Federation and proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra; and on July 7 a federal attack on Biafra plunged the country into civil war. Nervous African leaders know that no African state was better prepared for independence, and they know that no African state is immune to the problems which beat Nigeria to its knees--those of a tribal society confronting modernization. They are hoping Nigeria will stand again...
...military victory were the key to Nigerian unity, Africans could take heart. Most observers feel it's a matter of time--two months at most--until Federal armies overrun Biafra and disperse its ragged forces. The Biafrans probably postponed the end with their daring thrust into Nigeria's Midwestern Region last month; and federal forces have shown a curious unwillingness to follow up their infrequent victories...
Still, with only air routes open, Biafra has been effectively isolated by the Federals' naval and land blockade. There were, reportedly, serious shortages of essential goods as early as the first week in August--when the blockade was barely three months old. Using its foreign exchange reserves, Nigeria has bolstered its military superiority with Soviet bloc jets--more than a match for Biafra's one World War II surplus bomber...
Offering Advice. The delegates served notice that secessionists will not be tolerated in the African countries, thus condemning by inference the rebel Biafrans of Nigeria; they also made plans to send a six-member delegation to Nigeria to offer advice on ways to end the civil war. Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somalian diplomats took the occasion to arrange talks for next month aimed at ending the revolt of Somali tribesmen in Kenya and Ethiopia. While Haile Selassie urged an armed assault on the white-supremacist government of Rhodesia, the delegates more realistically decided only to increase their financial support for bands...