Biafra's Two Wars

The stranglehold tightened last week on Biafra, where the secessionist forces of Lieut. Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu are encircled by the federal Nigerian army. Only three cities remain in Biafran control: Umuahia, Owerri and Aba. Of these three, by far the most vital to Ojukwu is Aba, a trade and rail center of 100,000 before the war and Biafra's provisional capital. It was at Aba that Nigeria's 3rd Division, moving steadily north from Port Harcourt, aimed its assault.

Orders with Kick. To reach Aba, federal forces had to cross the swift cur rents of the Imo River, which the Bi-afrans had established as the major defense line protecting Aba by the simple expedient of blowing up the main bridges. They had left just one bridge intact--at Awaza--and it was heavily mined. When federal marine comman dos stepped onto the bridge, it, too, exploded and vanished. The blast, however, failed to stop federal soldiers from running across the catwalk on top of a natural-gas pipeline that spanned the river parallel to the bridge. As 50 virtually unarmed Biafran guards watched helplessly, a steady line of Nigerians made their way across the catwalk and pierced the Ibo heartland.

The backbone of Ojukwu's military resistance is a small group of white mercenaries commanded by Colonel Rolf Steiner, a 38-year-old former Foreign Legion sergeant who fought in Indo-China and Algeria. His ability to make the most of Biafra's minimal military resources has moved him steadily upward in rank and power since he signed on last December. When news of the federal onslaught reached Ojukwu, he hurried to Steiner's headquarters in an abandoned nunnery in Owerri.

Outside, monsoon rain was falling on a blue-and-white plaster Madonna whose forehead had been punctured by a bullet. Steiner was standing in the refectory, the strain of the war lining his face. "You must save Aba at any cost," pleaded Ojukwu. "You must hold the place--is that clear?" Steiner hesitated. "Mon colonel, I was only a sergeant in the Legion," he said. "I cannot command a division." Replied Ojukwu: "Oh, but you will. And you will hold."

Bridge to Firepower. Steiner moved his headquarters to Aba, pushing through the panicked flight of thousands of townspeople. He found that the Nigerians had split into two groups. In two days of pitched battles, the five brigades under Steiner's command managed to blunt the advance of both federal columns, which, unable to get their cannon across the river, were fighting without their usual massive artillery support. At week's end, the Biafrans were dug in near two vital crossroads, while the Nigerians were repairing the bridge in order to move across their heavy firepower. Ojukwu's hopes rested on obtaining new supplies: he claimed to have signed an agreement with a French firm for immediate shipments of guns and ammunition.

In Biafra's other war--on hunger--the Red Cross resumed night relief flights that had been interrupted two weeks ago when federal troops started to fire on its planes. Together with flights chartered by Caritas, the international Catholic relief organization, the Biafran airlift brought to starving Biafrans some 30 tons of food and med icine per night--still only a fraction of the 1,000 tons a day that are needed. At week's end negotiators who have been meeting for four weeks in Addis Ababa made marked progress in clearing the logjam holding up large-scale relief. Meeting with Emperor Haile Selassie, moderator of the talks, they agreed to create both air and land corridors for shipments of food to Biafra's starving civilians.

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