By admin
This report in March 1969, details the perilous task of flying relief into Biafra by the various Charity and Aid organisations during the protracted Biafran war. This time, the British MP for Salford East; Frank Allaun, flew in into Uli airport in a DC 6 bearing 10 tons of relief from the World Council of Churches accompanied by Rev fr William Aitken; a Scot.
The cargo was mostly sacks of Stock-Fish popularly known as Okporoko amongst the Igbo of Nigeria, this fish provided the badly needed protein for the starving Biafran people, especially its children who suffered from Kwashiorkor – a protein deficiency disease that wastes children away whilst giving them a distinct look of a distended belly.
Night flights into Uli were always a dangerous affair but these relief pilots braved them for different reasons; money, religious affiliations with the Christian Biafrans, moral obligations, sympathy and more. Nevertheless, the braved the Nigerian anti-aircraft gunfire, the hovering fighter jets that bomb and strafe the airport everytime they see an approaching relief flight.
These fighter jets were nicknamed Intruder or Genocide by the Biafrans and though they mostly missed the Uli runway with their payload, they did score a hit sometimes, prompting the ever-so resourceful Biafrans to quickly parch up the runway. a number of relief pilots did lose their lives flying these dangerous missions.
Landing at Uli involved a process of some radio silience and killing of any lights until few minutes to landing, when the improvised runway lights come on briefly and then off, by then the pilot already is in position to land having evaded any enemy fighters lurking around.
These relief flights by all these charity and church agencies, were a necessary lifeline for Biafra, as they brought in tonnes of relief, which saved a lot of lives in the blockaded republic even though millions still died from starvation.
The Nigerians and British on the other hand, always rejected this school of thought, instead they argued that the relief flights, were a cover to bring in weapons and unnecessarily prolonged the war, and increased suffering.
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