WAR LASTED 2½ YEARS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32194, 13 January 1970, Page 9

WAR LASTED 2½ YEARS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter) LONDON, Jan. 11. The Nigerian civil war has dragged on for two and a half years despite the numerical superiority of the Federal side and numerous international attempts at mediation. The bitter fighting between Federal Nigeria and the breakaway State of Biafra has led to widespread suffering of civilians, especially of chiL - dren, and unofficial estimates are that more than two million people may have died from starvation. Casualty figures from the battlefield are not available. The International Red Cross and Protestant and Roman Catholic Church organisations have tried to ease the situation by relief flights with food end medical supplies into the blockaded area of Qiafra. But these have been plagued by bickering over how and when the flights should be made. The Biafrans have held out until now although their territory has been whittled away to only a tenth of its original size.

The latest peace move initiated by Emperor Haile Selasie of Ethiopa in December, 1969, collapsed because the Biafran leader, General Odumegwu Ojukwu, refused talks under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity (OA.U.).

The Federal leader, General Yakubu Gowon, has repeatedly said that military operations would stop if General Ojukwu would agree to renounce bis secession. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, was plunged into war after the Eastern Region, which has rich oil reserves, proclaimed itself the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967. Six days later fighting began. Deep tribal rivalries were at the root of the Nigerian tragedy. The three major groups are the Hausas in the north, the Yorubas in the west and the Ibos in the east. Tribal tension led to the assassination in 1966 of the Hausa Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, by Ibo officers. Major-General J. T. Aguiyi Ironsi, an Ibo, took over and tried to impose a unitary system of Government on the country, but he was murdered in the same year by non-lbo soldiers. ' General Gowon, then a lieu-tenant-colonel, a northerner, but a non-Moslem, next became head of the military government. Attempts ’to save the country from splitting into separate and hostile states foundered on the refusal of the Eastern Region Military Governor, General Ojukwu to recognise General Gowon as head of the Government. General Ojukwu, son of one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men, favoured a loose confederation, while the Lagos authori-

ties wanted a federation with strong central control. Large-scale massacres of Ibos in the Northern Region preceded the outbreak of war which came after the Federal Government divided the Eastern Region into three. Federal troops made spectacular gains at the outset, cutting off the secessionists from the sea.

But the Biafrans, aided by outsiders such as Carl Gustaf Van Rosen, a Swedish count who helped build up an air

force, managed to hold out in the Ibo heartland. On several occasions last year it even launched counter attacks oh Federal-held areas. They recaptured Owerri, a strategic town 100 miles southwest of Enugu, last April. The difficulties surrounding the relief reached a peak last June when the Red Cross suspended its night flights after one of its planes was shot down. Church organisations have carried on but have been able to fly in about half of the estimated daily minimum of 600 tons of food required for Biafra. Both sides have agreed to the principle of daylight Red Cross flights. But the Federal side has insisted on inspect ing the cargoes for arms, while the Biafrans feared the mercy corridor could be used for a surprise air attack on its only remaining airstrip at Uli, about 30 miles north of Owerri, which had become the Biafran administrative centre after its recapture.