The Biafran Airlift was an international humanitarian relief effort that transported food and medicine to Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War. Relief flights lasted from 1967 to 1969. This was the largest civilian airlift and, after the Berlin airlift of 1948–49, the largest non-combatant airlift of any kind ever carried out. The airlift was largely a series of joint efforts by Protestant and Catholic church groups, and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), operating civilian and military aircraft with mostly volunteer civilian crews and support personnel. Several national governments also supported the effort, mostly behind the scenes. This sustained joint effort, which lasted one and a half times as long as its Berlin predecessor, is estimated to have saved more than a million lives.Biafra Relief Heroes: remembering--in the words of those who were there..., Voice of Biafra International www.biafraland.com Retrieved 2013-01-03
In early 1968, an Irish missionary began a relief effort based in São Tomé Island, under the aegis of the Committee of International Church Relief Organizations. At the time, São Tomé was a Portuguese overseas department and had taken a neutral stance on the Nigerian Civil War. The island's authorities had made its ports available to both belligerents.
The Nigerian government and some Nigerian military leaders stated the threat of genocide was fabricated and was "misguided humanitarian rubbish." They additionally stated that mass starvation was an intended goal, saying "If the children must die first, then that is too bad, just too bad,"Nigerian Colonel Atakunie, (London Economist, Aug. 24, 1968 as cited in the Village Voice Oct. 17, 1968; and San_Francisco_Chronicle, July 2) as cited in Village Voice Oct. 17, 1968. Cited in The Tragedy of Biafra, A Report by the American Jewish Congress December 1968, page 24 via www.biafraland.com Retrieved 2013-01-12 and "All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war".
Background
By 1968, a year after the start of the Nigerian Civil War, large numbers of children were reportedly starving to death due to a blockade imposed by the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG) and military.Remembering the Nightmare of Biafra, The Free Library. Retrieved 2013-01-04 By 1969 it was reported that over 1,000 children per day were starving to death.New York Times, August 24, 1969. via biafranet.com Retrieved 2013-01-04 A FMG representative declared, "Starvation is a legitimate weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it."Philip Gourevitch, Alms Dealers, The New Yorker, October 11, 2010. Retrieved 2013-01-02 With the advent of global television reporting, for the first time, famine, starvation, and the humanitarian response were seen by millions around the world, demanding that both the government and private sector joint efforts to save as many as possible from starving to death.
International reactions to the plight of the civilian population in the secessionist region were diverse. The United Nations and most national governments, expressing reluctance to become involved in what was officially considered an internal Nigerian affair, remained silent on the escalating humanitarian crisis. Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, refused to support the airlift.
The position of the Organization of African Unity was to not intervene in conflicts its members' deemed internal and to support the nation-state boundaries instituted during the colonial era.Sixties in America salempress.com . Retrieved 2013-01-11 The ruling Labour Party of the United Kingdom, which together with the USSR was supplying arms to the Nigerian military,BBC, on this day in history, 1969: Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra (Stories from 30 June) news.bbc.co.uk dismissed reports of famine as "enemy propaganda".Secret papers reveal Biafra intrigue, BBC News, January 3, 2000. Retrieved 2013-01-03 Mark Curtis writes that the UK also reportedly provided military assistance on the 'neutralisation of the rebel airstrips', with the understanding that their destruction would put them out of use for daylight humanitarian relief flights.Nigeria's War Over Biafra, 1967-70, Mark Curtis. Retrieved 2013-01-02
The church-funded groups and NGOs became the most outspoken of the international supporters of aid to Biafra. The Joint Church Airlift (JCA) provided relief aid as well as attempted to establish an air force for Biafra. The American NGO Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was the leader and organizer of the JCA operation and Edward Kinney the CRS executive was responsible for securing the fleet of large cargo aircraft donated by the US government. On the ground CRS coordinated with the well positioned and established missionary priests and sisters particularly the Holy Spirit Fathers from Ireland to pull together the highly effective distribution and services on the ground.
This led to a ban by the Federal Military Government on aid flights into the region. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accepted the FMG's ban and did not participate in any international publicity about Biafra, a position that was condemned by the more vocal and active NGOs providing aid and here we would highlight the effective voices of CRS and Caritas International. Bernard Kouchner, a French doctor and one of the more outspoken critics, declared that this silence over Biafra made the ICRC's workers "accomplices in the systematic massacre of a population".Biafra and the Birth of the new Humanitarianism. faroutliers.wordpress.com Retrieved 2013-01-05
American president Lyndon Johnson demanded his State Department "get those nigger babies off my TV set".Cohen & Tucker, page 275 via books.google.com Retrieved 2013-01-02 The US government largely prevailed upon by the large effective constituency and advocacy efforts of CRS began providing funding to relief efforts. By 1969 the US had sold eight C-97 military cargo aircraft to CRS for JCA and was reported to be providing 49% of all aid to the relief effort.New York Times, July 21, 1969. via biafranet.com Retrieved 2012-01-04
Canada, facing its own internal separatist threat in the form of the Quebec sovereignty movement, was reluctant to extend aid to an area trying to separate from a fellow Commonwealth member, particularly in a region in which it had no prior experience. However, early assistance was provided with food, material and one military transport aircraft for several months. Financial assistance was also provided in the closing months of the airlift.Roy Thomas, The Birth of CANAIRELIEF, Vanguard Magazine, September 2006. Retrieved 2013-01-03
France responded by providing aid to Biafra: humanitarian aid through the French Red Cross and military aid quietly, if not officially.The Tragedy of Biafra: A Report by the American Jewish Congress, December 1968. via www.biafraland.com Retrieved 2013-01-11
While the vast majority of governments remained uninvolved, assistance was demanded by people around the world. Approximately 30 non-governmental organizations responded.Humanitarian Aid and the Biafra War: Lessons not Learned, Africa Development, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, 2009, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2009 via humansecuritygateway.com Retrieved 2013-01-03
The airlift
Relief aid into Biafra began arriving by land, sea, and air soon after the start of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967. Reports of widespread famine began emerging, many from NGOs participating in the relief aid efforts. Relief flights ramped up after Nigeria's land and sea blockade of Biafra became near-total in June 1968. These flights were mainly under the auspices of the ICRC, with Nordchurchaid being a major donor/partner. On June 5, 1969,Godwin Alabi-Isama, The Tragedy of Victory, Ibadan, 2013. page 385-393 an ICRC DC-7 aircraft was shot down by Nigerian forces, killing three relief workers. Nigeria demanded all relief flights be subject to their control. The ICRC suspended their flights from Cotonou and Santa Isabelle.
A dispute arose between the NGOs and the ICRC over the latter's position to comply with Nigeria's demands for a ban on outside relief flights. The ICRC defended their position stating that "Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, intended for international armed conflict, stipulates that a belligerent State can satisfy itself that material assistance is neutral."The International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian assistance - A policy analysis 31-10-1996. www.icrc.org Retrieved 2013-01-12Rony Brauman and Joelle Tanguy THE MSF EXPERIENCE Doctors Without Borders, (1998). Retrieved 2013-01-13 A leading critic of the ICRC's position declared that their silence over Biafra made its workers accomplices in the systematic massacre of a population.
In early 1968, Anthony Byrne, an Irish missionary who was active in Onitshsa before the war, began a relief effort based in the island of Sao Tome under the aegis of the Committee of International Church Relief Organizations. The committee included Caritas Internationalis, World Council of Churches, Catholic Relief Services, and Nordchurchaid, a collective of Scandinavian Protestant groups. Sao Tome was a Portuguese overseas department under the control of Governor Silva Sebastio, and had taken a neutral stance on the civil war and made its ports available to both belligerents, though the Nigerian federals made no use of them.
Relief flights began in earnest in late April. By September the relief effort had several planes at its disposal and was sending an average of ten flights to Biafra each night. With the support of Sebastio, children with Kwashiorkor were flown to the island for medical treatment.
Relief flights landed at Uli, codenamed "Airstrip Annabelle", the only operational "airport" in Biafra. At the height of the airlift it became the second busiest airport in Africa after Johannesburg.Koren, page 256. The bush landing strip was a widened road and had no instruments or navigation gear. The flights originated primarily from: the island of Sao Tome; the island of Fernando Po (then a Spanish colony and now known as Bioko, Republic of Equatorial Guinea); and Cotonou, Dahomey (now Benin).Fred Cuny The Lost American Frontline, PBS. Retrieved 2013-01-02 The humanitarian airlift was undertaken almost exclusively by civilian cargo aircraft and without any escorting military or defensive aircraft. Flights were also made from Libreville, Gabon by the French who were supplying both relief aid and military supplies.
The flights were undertaken under cover of darkness and without lights to avoid the attacking Nigerian aircraft who maintained air superiority during the day, supported by Soviet fishing trawlers offshore monitoring the flights.Kurt Vonnegut Biafra: A People Betrayed, journeytoforever.org, 1979. Retrieved 2013-01-13 Each aircraft made as many as four round-trips each night into Uli. The aircraft – nearly all of which were civilian and operated by civilian pilots – were based, fuelled, repaired, and maintained at the supply end of the airlift, not in Biafra. Three were destroyed on the ground at Uli by Nigerian aircraft.The Biafran airlift by NGOs faced federal mercenaries in the skies, Look and Learn, December 1973. Retrieved 2013-01-02
Attacking aircraft were frequently nearby trying to catch the airlifters while landing or on the ground, forcing pilots to hover in darkness until an all-clear was sounded and runway lights could be activated barely long enough to enable a speedy landing. Separation between aircraft in the air was maintained by cockpit radio communication between pilots as there was no radar. Hostile aircraft were flown by mercenaries who taunted airlift pilots over the radio and used call signs such as "Genocide".