Showing Airlift to Biafra: breaching the blockade by Tony Byrne

This is the story of the airlift in 1969 of humanitarian aid to the innocent people in Biafra caught up in the Nigerian Civil War. As ordinary people supported the airlift with generous donations, many of the governments were just as actively supporting the Nigerians forces, politically and militarily, with direct supplies of planes, tanks and guns to crush the Biafrans. The Churches often came into conflict with the politicians and had to work with gunrunners and other strange characters. The book describes dangerous flights through anti-aircraft fire onto unlit runways, interspersed with details of the delicate diplomatic negotiations with churches and governments. The spin-offs from Biafra have been considerable. It was the first televised war and mass-starvation in Africa, and it acted as a catalyst to change people's thinking on the provision of relief. Many organizations, such as Concern, founded specifically to support the Biafran airlift, have since led the development of relief programmes through to the present crisis in Rwanda.