Word: ojukwu
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With the federal capture of Owerri two weeks ago, Nigeria's civil war entered a new and perhaps final phase. Secessionist Biafra, now less than one-tenth its original size, holds but one important town: Umuahia. Should it fall, Lieut. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu would lose his last physical claim on breakaway statehood and be forced, if he is still able, to carry on his fight for Biafra's Ibo people from the jungle. As it advanced slowly but steadily on Umuahia last week, TIME Correspondent Edward Hughes joined Nigeria's 3rd Marine Commando division. His report...
...stranglehold tightened last week on Biafra, where the secessionist forces of Lieut. Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu are encircled by the federal Nigerian army. Only three cities remain in Biafran control: Umuahia, Owerri and Aba. Of these three, by far the most vital to Ojukwu is Aba, a trade and rail center of 100,000 before the war and Biafra's provisional capital. It was at Aba that Nigeria's 3rd Division, moving steadily north from Port Harcourt, aimed its assault...
...backbone of Ojukwu's military resistance is a small group of white mercenaries commanded by Colonel Rolf Steiner, a 38-year-old former Foreign Legion sergeant who fought in Indo-China and Algeria. His ability to make the most of Biafra's minimal military resources has moved him steadily upward in rank and power since he signed on last December. When news of the federal onslaught reached Ojukwu, he hurried to Steiner's headquarters in an abandoned nunnery in Owerri...
Outside, monsoon rain was falling on a blue-and-white plaster Madonna whose forehead had been punctured by a bullet. Steiner was standing in the refectory, the strain of the war lining his face. "You must save Aba at any cost," pleaded Ojukwu. "You must hold the place-is that clear?" Steiner hesitated. "Mon colonel, I was only a sergeant in the Legion," he said. "I cannot command a division." Replied Ojukwu: "Oh, but you will. And you will hold...
...both federal columns, which, unable to get their cannon across the river, were fighting without their usual massive artillery support. At week's end, the Biafrans were dug in near two vital crossroads, while the Nigerians were repairing the bridge in order to move across their heavy firepower. Ojukwu's hopes rested on obtaining new supplies: he claimed to have signed an agreement with a French firm for immediate shipments of guns and ammunition...