Federal Troops. Defend Umuahia

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 16

Federal Troops. Defend Umuahia

(N.Z.P.A.-R^uttt—Copyright)

UMUAHIA, May 8.

Two battalions of Nigerian troops are defending Umuahia, the former Biafran capital, throwing a ring round its outskirts against sporadic secessionist counter-attacks.

More than two weeks after its capture, the city, which once had a refugee-swollen population of several hundred thousand, is deserted, except for soldiers of the Federal 21st and 44th battalions, and a mere 60 civilians.

The whole city is in Federal control but the First Division troops, nearly all northern Nigerians, have so far pushed south only a few hundred yards past the outer limits trf the city, on the main roads towards Aba and Ikot Ekpene. The city was quiet hut the Commander of the 21st battalion, Major Yohanna Kure, said his men repulsed a minor Biafran counter-attack from the Aba road early on Tuesday. From Umuahia’s west side Federal troops have moved between two and three miles along the road towards Orlu, Biafra’s new administrative centre, Federal officers told reporters who were allowed into the city for the first time since Its capture.

But in any advance further westward, Federal troops face

Biafran defences on the Imo River, crossing two main exit roads about six miles from the city. ' A full, battalion of Federal soldiers—nearly 1000 men—from the First Division’s 82nd Battalion are guarding the key road into Umuahia from Okikwl 25 miles to the north, which is the Federal garrison’s only supply route. For 18 miles, from just south of Okikwi to the beginning of the metalled road at the junction village of Ahaba, the army is moving food, water and ammunition along a narrow dirt track.

This threatens to become an easily-ambushed quagmire when summer rains intensify in a few weeks. A bulldozer has been used to widen and harden the red soil surface, already cleared of mines left by retreating Biafran troops. Federal officers are confident that they will be abje to hold their supply route open and prevent any encirclement similar to that at Owerri, recaptured by the secessionists last month.