Only a few months into the Nigeria- Biafra war, the imbalance in the disposition of military hardware was already definitive in favour of Nigeria. U.S.S.R and Britain literally flung the gates of their armouries wide open for Nigeria to satisfy her wish-list of weapons on credit, while Biafra struggled to purchase obsolete bolt- action rifles at cut-throat black market prices. It was the peak of the cold war, the ideological conflict between the Communist East bloc (Russia and her allies) and the Capitalist West bloc (U.S and allies). To survive as a country then, you needed to belong to one bloc. Biafra belonged to none. An ideological orphan!

Having denied Biafra access to weapons to defend herself, the next item on the agenda of strategic containment of Biafra was to impose an economic blockade. This goal was again rapidly and effectively achieved. The Atlantic Ocean from Bakassi Peninsular to Forcados / Escravos deltaic complex was declared no-go zone for ships heading to Biafra. Thus north, west and south of Biafra were sealed, leaving temporarily the East boundary with Cameroon. For a brief interlude, it looked as if Cameroon would not co-operate with the blockade, considering the historical affiliation between Eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon. But unfortunately for Biafra, the President of Cameroon then was Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Fulani from northern Cameroon. Naturally, his sympathy was for the Nigerian cause. Some argues that Ahidjo supported the blockade in exchange for the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsular. In any case, Biafra was under a total land blockade by 1967.

It was therefore not surprising that within the first few months of the war, the major food producing areas of Biafra had been disturbed, Abakiliki axis being the most heart-breaking. When the first shots of the war were fired at Garkem on July 6, 1967, Biafra farmers in those areas had hardly harvested early maize. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of fully cultivated farmlands were abandoned as military hostilities spread. Millions of civilians were also displaced, moving away with no more than a bicycle load of supplies. thus started the food crisis in Biafra.

By 1968, what was most feared in Biafra was not the staccato refrain of assorted rifles in the distance, nor the bombing dives of Russian Mig and Ilyushin jets piloted by Egyptians, nor the ever-increasing range of Nigerian artillery, but the spectre of installmental death through salvation. Food crisis was a phenomenon hitherto unknown in Biafra, Chinua Achebe’s home land where in-laws shook hands over pyramids of pounded yam!

The stage was set for a catastrophic humanitarian disaster. The world kept silent. Many countries hated the idea of Biafra because they also had their own Biafras i.e. secessionist regions. If Biafra was allowed to go, they argued, then many autonomous regions would start their own clamour for self –determination, leading to global anarchy and chaos. Some of these countries had a policy of ‘quick kill’ for Biafra arguing that, since Biafra would be eventually defeated militarily, it was better to do it quickly to minimize the pains. Corporate euthanasia! The lessons of history can be complex. Biafra was defeated, but it did not stop new Biafras. In a most ironic twist of fate, and a classical illustration of the proverb ‘physician, heal thyself’, the same USSR that helped keep Nigeria united could not prevent its own disintegration in 1991. In Dec 1991 USSR broke up into 15 new countries! Even Russia, the dominant component of USSR then, is likely to split further as Chechnya & Co are becoming increasingly restive.

At least half of the Biafran civilian population would have perished but for the intervention of several relief agencies, notably, Caritas, WCC, US Catholic Relief Services, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland, Red Cross etc. The church bodies co-ordinated their activities under a joint body called Joint Action Aid.

Monsignor Dr. Georg Huessler was the Secretary-General and subsequently President of Caritas International during the war. He co-ordinated relief operations that saved millions of Biafrans during the war, 1967-1970.Fr. Huessler mobilized the German civilian population and other relief agencies to donate massively to the Biafra Relief Action, delivering materials like medicines, cornmeal, milk powder, salt, sugar, rice, stock fish, egg yolk and clothing which saved millions of lives. A total of about 10,000 relief flights were made to Biafra during the war.

Some sick and starving Biafran children were also airlifted to Ivory Coast, Gabon and Sao Tome where they were cared for and returned after the war. Fr. Huessler built the Biafra Children Village in Km 11, Libreville, Gabon at a cost of 12 million Deutsche Mark collected from the German people. About 4,000 Biafran children were airlifted for care during the war.

At a stage, the Nigerian Air Force started shooting down relief planes, forcing some relief agencies like the Red Cross to withdraw. But Caritas, under the leadership of Fr. Huessler, was one of the agencies that maintained a relief corridor to the very end. But Fr. Huessler and Caritas gave the Biafrans this life-line at a huge cost. By some accounts, about 27 pilots died in action while about 10 relief planes were shot down during the relief flights by Caritas and the other relief agencies

Fr. Huessler was born on July 7, 1921 in Einod, Saarland Germany and grew up in Elsass, France. He was a medical student at the outbreak of second world war. He enlisted into the German Army where he worked as a Sanitary Inspector.With the defeat of the Germans and end of the war in 1945, Huessler proceeded to Rome where he studied Theology and was ordained priest in 1951. After his doctoral studies, he joined Caritas Headquarters in Frieburg, where he was employed as Assistant to the President. He rose steadily to become the Secretary- General and later the President, a post he held for 22 years from 1969-1991.

It is not only on the practical side of Catholic social teaching that Fr. Huessler distinguished himself. On the theoretical plane of Catholic social teaching, he wrote five insightful books which include Caritas and Pastoral work (1985), Life in the 20thCentury (1998) and Humanity and Spirituality (2006). Msgr. Huessler was decorated by the three tiers of government in Germany – the Local Government of City of Freiburg, the, State government of Baden-Wurttemberg and the Federal Republic of Germany.

On July 7, 2012 when Msgr. Huessler celebrated his 91st birthday, he as usual received hundreds of birthday goodwill messages from his Igbo admirers. Little did we know that was to be the last. He died on Sunday, 14 April, 2013, three months short of 92 years.

The story of Biafra can never be complete without Msgr. Huessler and the several relief agencies. We need to immortalize Msgr. Huessler by naming a structure(s) after him- buildings in tertiary institutions, research centres, hospitals, orphanage centres, streets etc- in appreciation and lasting remembrance of what he did for the Igbo in our most difficult years.

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