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Eight
years after Nigeria won its independence from Britain, civil war
plagued Africa's most populous country. Heading the secessionist
state of Biafra, the home of Nigeria's Ibo tribe, Oxford educated
Lieut. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was facing potential
annihilation by his country's much larger modern forces, backed
by Britain, Russia and much of Europe. "We are fighting this
dreadful war not for conquest but for survival," Ojukwu
told TIME.
"Now
this path has become the road to the slaughterhouse here in the
Ibo heartland." In a land described by TIME correspondent James
Wilde as "depressing beyond description," 8 million Biafrans
slowly starved to death. - Time Correspondent |
