page_title: Biafran airlift
section_title: The airlift
hierarchical_section_title: Biafran airlift / The airlift
caption_attribution_description: English: This 1968 photograph showed salted dried codfish that was distributed to refugees of the Nigerian-Biafran war in the late 1960s. Such fish helped to supplement the protein deficient diets of the camp inhabitants who were suffering from protein malnutrition, which would eventually lead to kwashiorkor. In 1967, the CDC was asked to assist the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its disease control and death prevention efforts at numerous relief camps outside of the war zone. The CDC carried out rapid health and nutritional assessments, coordinated the overall health and nutritional response, and implemented surveillance systems to track rates of illness and death. A triage approach was taken when allotting food supplies to camp refugees, which was based on the initial determination of each refugee’s nutritional status. The most serious malnutrition cases were hospitalized in each camp to be rehabilitated.
context_page_description: The Biafran Airlift was an international humanitarian relief effort that transported food and medicine to Biafra during the 1967-70 secession war from Nigeria. It was the largest civilian airlift and, after the Berlin airlift of 1948–49, the largest non-combatant airlift of any kind ever carried out. The airlift was largely a series of joint efforts by Protestant and Catholic church groups, and other non-governmental organizations s, operating civilian and military aircraft with volunteer civilian crews and support personnel. Several national governments also supported the effort, mostly behind the scenes. This sustained joint effort, which lasted one and a half times as long as its Berlin predecessor, is estimated to have saved more than a million lives.
  However, it is not without controversy, as the Nigerian government and some Nigerian military leaders stated the threat of genocide was fabricated and was "misguided humanitarian rubbish". They additionally stated that mass starvation was an intended goal, saying "If the children must die first, then that is too bad, just too bad, " and "All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war".
context_section_description: Relief aid into Biafra began arriving by land, sea, and air soon after the start of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967. Reports of widespread famine began emerging, many from NGOs participating in the relief aid efforts. Relief flights ramped up after Nigeria's land and sea blockade of Biafra became near-total in June, 1968. These flights were mainly under the auspicies of the ICRC, with Nordchurchaid being a major donor/partner. Also on June 5, 1969 an ICRC DC-7 aircraft was shot down by Nigerian forces (killing 3 relief workers); Nigeria demanded all reflief flights be subject to their control; and the ICRC suspended their flights from Cotonou and Santa Isabelle.
  A dispute arose between the NGOs and the ICRC over the latter's position to comply with Nigeria's demands for a ban on outside relief flights. The ICRC defended their position stating that "Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, intended for international armed conflict, stipulates that a belligerent State can satisfy itself that material assistance is neutral."
  A leading critic of the ICRC's position declared that their silence over Biafra made its workers accomplices in the systematic massacre of a population. In response, the NGOs formally established their own relief flights operating out of Sao Tome. This was the effective start of Joint Church Aid, also referred to by media as "Jesus Christ Airlines," and what soon became known as the Biafran Airlift.
  (Also in response to the ICRC's position, a group of French volunteer doctors working in Biafra concluded that a new aid organization that would prioritize the welfare of victims irrespective of national or religious boundaries was needed, went on to found Médecins Sans Frontières or Doctors Without Borders in 1971).
  Relief flights landed at Uli, codenamed "Airstrip Annabelle", the only operational "airport" in Biafra. At the height of the airlift it became the second busiest airport in Africa after Johannesburg. The bush landing strip was a widened road and had no instruments or navigation gear. The flights originated primarily from: the island of Sao Tome (then a Portuguese colony); the island of Fernando Po (then a Spanish colony and now known as Bioko, Republic of Equatorial Guinea); and Coutonou, Dahomey (now Benin). The humanitarian airlift was undertaken almost exclusively by civilian cargo aircraft and without any escorting military or defensive aircraft. Flights were also made from Libreville, Gabon by the French who were supplying both relief aid and military supplies.
  The flights were undertaken under cover of darkness and without lights to avoid attacking Nigerian aircraft who maintained air superiority during the day, supported by Soviet fishing trawlers offshore monitoring the flights. Each aircraft made as many as four round-trips each night into Uli. The aircraft - nearly all of which were civilian and operated by civilian pilots - were based, fueled, repaired, and maintained at the supply end of the airlift, not in Biafra. Three were destroyed on the ground at Uli by Nigerian aircraft. Attacking aircraft were frequently nearby trying to catch the airlifters while landing or on the ground, forcing pilots to hover in darkness until an all-clear was sounded and runway lights could be activated barely long enough to enable a speedy landing. Separation between aircraft in the air was maintained by cockpit radio communication between pilots as there was no radar. Hostile aircraft were flown by mercenaries who taunted airlift pilots over the radio and used call signs such as "Genocide". Approaches were made low over the treetops and landing was made without runway lights. At times the brief illumination of the runway lights could provide sufficient bearing for the attacking aircraft. Once on the ground Air and ground crew frequently had to evacuate the aircraft after landing and take cover from attacking aircraft in trenches alongside the runway. Radio broadcasts from Uli normally used code, such as "no landing lights" for "we are being bombed."
  Almost all of the airplanes, crews and logi
caption: Salted dried codfish that was distributed to refugees of the Nigerian-Biafran war in the late 1960s. Such fish helped to supplement the protein deficient diets of the camp inhabitants who were suffering from protein malnutrition, which would eventually lead to kwashiorkor.
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