Agreement On Refugee Relief

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31767, 26 August 1968, Page 13

Agreement On Refugee Relief

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) ADDIS ABABA, August 24. Mr Diallo Telli, Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity, said today the two delegations to the Nigerian peace talks had reached agreement to rush relief supplies to the civilian victims of the war.

Mr Telli told a press conference the two delegations—the Federal Government and Biafra—would meet later today to discuss details of the urgent implementation of the agreement. Mr Telli said the agreement was reached after a long session this morning under the chairmanship of Emperor Haile Selassie. The session is understood to have lasted some three hours.

However the Federal Gov- ■ emment said today it had not received official word of an agreement on supplying relief through land and air corridors to victims of the civil war, the Associated Press reported from Lagos. The last word from Addis Ababa reported the Biafrans were studying a Nigerian proposal that an airlift go to Sirport, near Ihiala, which is believed to be the airstrip where Biafrans receive the bulk of the arms flown into the surrounded secessionist republic. Diplomatic sources said a mercy airlift to the same airstrip would make it impossible to land arms because of over-crowding. However, the Biafrans are known to have at least one more airstrip near Okigwi, 25 miles north of Umuahia, the headquarters of the Biafran leader, C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. The Nigerians have suggested a land corridor from the former Biafran capital, Neugu, ’now in Federal hands, to Agwu, 33 miles to the south. Supplies would be transferred to the Biafrans a few miles south of Agwu. Fighting Continues Meanwhile heavy fighting is continuing all round the last Biafran outpost town of Aba but Nigerian Federal troops are making no progress. “In fact, they have suffered a set-back,” military sources in Aba said. The threat to Aba disrupted business and the transportation of relief materials to refugees in camps. One camp official said, “For one week now we have not received any allocation, and the refugees have gone without food for that length of time.” An official has said that the death rate of the refugees in camps has increased sharply, due to the shortage of relief supplies. Although the Nigerians have not managed to advance into Aba, an air raid this week by Nigerian planes cav’ed conwrnauon. One of the bombs just missed a refugee camp, while another, dropped in a market, killed a mother, her child, and two others.