Biafran Army Claims Major Advances

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31448, 15 August 1967, Page 15

Biafran Army Claims Major Advances

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LAGOS, August 14. Secessionist Biafran troops had captured three towns in Northern Nigeria and were pushing towards the Niger and Benue rivers and the key town of Lokoja, Radio Biafra said last night.

The radio claimed the Biafrans were some 40 miles north of the Mid-Western State, seized in a lightning land strike last Wednesday. It described Lokoja as a federal military beachhead and air base. Secessionist troops had seized the nearby towns of Okene, Attami, and Iloshi in their break-out from the midWest, the broadcast said.

It was also claimed that Biafran aircraft had bombed Lokoja for two days. It was now a ghost town, deserted and in flames.

Nigerian Federal Air Force planes bombed the Biafran capital of Enugu for the second time, the Federal Government announced in Lagos yesterday. Federal ground forces were reported to have begun operations against the Biafrans at Warri. Burutu and Sapele In the oil-rich Mid-West Region. The Government did not say what type of aircraft were

used in the raids, but it took delivery last week or two Czech fighter-bombers. Four others are reported to be on order. The Nigerian Air Force recently announced its staff were fully trained, including jet pilots—most of whom got their training in West Germany. Call By Chief The leader of Western Nigeria’s Yoruba tribe, Chief Obafeni Awolowo, has declared his people’s support for the Federal Government in its campaign to overthrow the secessionist regime in the Eastern Region. The Biafran “Liberation Army” in the Mid-West, led by a Yoruba colonel, has called on Yorubas—one of Nigeria’s main tribes—to desert the Federal Government and join in fighting against alleged Hausa and Fulani domination of the country.