Friday, August 31, 2012

Biafra

"I have seen things in Biafra this week no man should have to see. Sights to search the heart and sicken the conscience. I have seen children roasted alive, young girls torn in two by shrapnel, pregnant women eviscerated, and old men blown to fragments. I have seen these things and I have seen their cause; high-flying Russian Ilyushin jets operated by Federal Nigeria, dropping their bombs on civilian centres throughout Biafra...At Onitsha, the 300 strong congregation of the Apostolic Church decided to stay on while others fled and to pray for deliverance. Col. [Murtala] Mohammed's* Second Division found them in the church, dragged them out, tied their hands behind their backs and executed them."

(Sunday Times, London, 26 April, 1968, p. 12)

*Col. Mohammed took power in 1975; was assassinated in a military coup in 1976. He never paid for his crimes in this life. Nor did any of his accomplices. 

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