Ojukwu Interprets the Kwale Incident

In addition to the main invasion of August 1967, there were several incidents of Biafran incursion into the Midwest during the civil war. In May 1969 for example, Biafran commandos crossed the River Niger and siezed foreign hostages in Kwale. This caused an international uproar. This was Ojukwu's international press statement (on June 6, 1969) in response:

A few weeks ago, during an operation at Kwale across the Niger, gallant Biafran troops captured and brought into Biafra fourteen Italians, three Germans and one Lebanese. From the reports of our field commanders in that sector and form evidence produced during investigations and the subsequent trial of the men concerned, they were captured fighting alongside Nigerians against our troops. In addition, they assisted in constructing roads and other means of communication to aid the enemy in their operations against our republic.

As all of you now know, these men were duly tried for crimes against the Republic of Biafra. A total of eleven charges were preferred against them. Of these, they were acquitted on nine and found guilty on two. The two counts on which they were convicted carried, in accordance with our law, the death penalty. They were accordingly condemned. In response to the direct appeal by His Holiness the Pope and the intercession of our friends, I, two days ago, on June 4, 1969, exercised my prerogative of mercy and granted the men a reprieve. We meet today, on this happy but solemn occasion, to
witness their release. They will be released and handed over to our friends of the Republic of the Ivory Coast and the Republic of Gabon who have kindly agreed and undertaken to take them back to the Republics of Ivory Coast and of Gabon where arrangements will be made to fly them to their respective countries.

All of us, in Biafra, are happy and proud that we have been able to perform this Christian and magnanimous act in spite of all provocations and injuries of the greatest and varied magnitudes which we have suffered at the hands of our enemies. Our action has been influenced by humanitarian considerations and respect for the sanctity of human life. In all our actions and conduct right through the whole period of this episode, we have placed three considerations and factors above everything else, namely (i) the fact of our sovereignty; (ii) the indispensability of our security; (iii) the image of our country and that of our friends. 

The men to be released have been described as 'oil men,' that is to say, people working for oil companies in Nigeria and Biafra. This immediately brings to mind the significance of 'oil' in the current Biafra/Nigeria conflict. Oil is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy and it is on oil that they obtain all the
credits necessary for the prosecution of this futile war. Anyone, therefore, who does anything to sustain Nigeria in its genocidal war against Biafra, is the enemy of Biafra pure and simple, and will be treated as such when apprehended . . . . 

There is a significant side-line to the events connected with the release of these men - a situation from which all Africa should draw a healthy and wise
lesson. For the lives of eighteen individuals, the entire whitesituation population of the world - from east to west, north to south - have risen in an impressive solidarity. Even those who for these two years of war have actively supported Nigeria in the slaughter of thousands and thousands of black lives in Biafra, have raised passionate voices and made desperate moves. I am not a racist. Far from it. But it is impossible to avoid the need to point to these facts and to make appropriate deductions. I appeal to Nigeria and all countries of Africa to draw a useful lesson. Those countries who instigate and encourage Africans to destroy fellow African lives, no matter the pretext, are no friends of Africa. In this issue, Africa and the black race should emulate the action of the white world, as clearly brought out over the fate of the eighteen lives now spared, and rise up in concert to end the current bloodshed in African. 

With the incapability of the O.AU. as an organization to stop the conflict, and the reprehensible indifference of the Secretary-General of the U.N.O., I hereby take this opportunity to call for a cessation of hostilities and negotiations leading to a permanent solution - the negotiations to be without pre-conditions. It if is impossible for the two sides to do so directly, then I suggest that friends of the warring parties should get together for preliminary discussions which would facilitate a peaceful confrontation of the conflicting view points. We repeat that this war is futile. The war will, and can,
never solve anything. The current conflict can only be resolved round a conference table.

Compiled by NOWAMAGBE AUSTIN OMOIGUI, MD