ABSTRACT
This study was based on the analysis of the role of The ICRC during the Nigeria civil war 1967-1970. The ICRC, the first and basic component of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, has been performing an ever-increasing amount of humanitarian work both during armed conflicts and peace time. A peculiar challenge of the ICRC in Nigeria, apart from the legal and political discussed above was the issue of distance and accessibility. This, a technical challenge indeed, almost hampered the efforts of the ICRC in reaching the hinterlands of Nigeria during the civil war.
In order to reach starving civilian victims of the war and even prisoners, The ICRC personnel in some cases covered rough stretches of terrain on foot. The situation was more critical especially in the Biafran enclave, in which topography and landscape posed a serious challenge for accessibility and contacts with people who needed the relief supplies and assistance. In particular, people of the riverine areas that lived in the creeks and marshy areas of the Eastern Region (Biafra) during the period of the war such as Calabar, and Port Harcourt. These were the worst affected hence the incessant humanitarian crisis witnessed in those places before and after their capture by the Federal side. Apart the blockade placed by the Federal Government of Nigeria as a war strategy against the Biafrans, getting access to the enclave was the most dangerous adventure that the ICRC undertook in the course of the humanitarian operations in the region. Although this challenge was faced headlong by the establishment of stores and warehouses near strategic locations especially in the Biafran area, such as Enugu, Port Harcourt, Calabar, etc, where several tons of relief materials and provision were stockpile to reduce the distance and time of response to emergences nonetheless, the difficulties created by the terrain, sheer distance, and communications gaps markedly reduced the operational effectiveness, and the effects of these could not be underestimated in the deaths of some civilian victims of the war.
This particular challenge of distance over the years proved to be universal in the operational experiences of the ICRC. Indeed, ICRC relief activities in Angola, Ethiopia, and southern Sudan and especially towards the end of 1970s along the borders of Thailand and Kampuchea proved too difficult; hence the establishments of a vast network of complex transport systems. In the case of Nigeria, apart from the difficulty posed by the blockade that led to the establishment of ‘mercy corridors’, the natural topography of the area could be said to be the reason for the contemplation and actual practice of air dropping of the relief material in the Biafran enclave.
Similar to the problem of distance and accessibility was the lack of resource which faced the ICRC in its operation in the Nigerian Civil War. This was peculiar to ICRC relief operations in Africa and the Middle East. The ICRC received its funding from donor bodies and the contributions of states signatory to the Geneva Conventions. By implications, the organisation had no money of its own but relied heavily on the goodwill of donor bodies, as well as their preferences. At the earlier stage of the Nigerian conflict, the international donor agencies and governments who were the major financiers of relief efforts, under the sway of emotion and bolstered by public opinion, offered appreciable financial and material aid during the first phase of the relief operation.
However, the recurrence of emergency crisis and shortage of relief supplies in territories under the Biafran authorities and in the liberated areas, coupled with the politicization of the relief operations, tended to wane international interest in the operations. This was demonstrated by the exacerbated humanitarian crisis witnessed in Nigeria following the diminishing support especially in the period following the removal of the ICRC as the coordinator of relief operations in the country. This situation reinforced the view that it is easier to launch an operation than to maintain it once financial support diminishes. The world over, relief operations require personnel and materials. As earlier stated, the ICRC receives its funding from donor bodies and the contributions of states signatory to the Geneva Conventions. During the Nigerian Civil War, there was the politicization of relief materials along religious lines especially with the involvement of religious bodies, for most relief agencies were either Christian in association or the secular heirs of Western Christian tradition. These included, the World Council of Churches, Caritas International is, Catholic Relief Services, Quaker Service-Nigeria, Christian Council of Nigeria, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria most of which operated under Joint Church Aid (JCA). Some of the problems that the ICRC ran into during its period of coordination of the relief operations in the civil war were caused by mainly the activities of the religious bodies seen by the Nigerian government as conniving with the secessionist Biafra and aiding their resistance to the onslaught of the Federal side. It could be inferred that the JCA, had somewhat informal understandings with the Biafran leadership alone, which of course encouraged its constant violation of the sovereignty of the Nigerian state and the stricter interpretations of international laws which protects state sovereignty.
