3. - usaid

The work of the
kwashiorkor sickbays
would have been impossible
without the
relief supplies
provided by ICRC,
Caritas, and the World
Council of Churches,
and other voluntary
organizations, the
devotion to duty of
BiafYan nurses and
medical officers, and
the support in cash
and local food supplies
of the Biaf'ran
population.
Biaf'ran children receiving treatment at French
Military Hospital in Gabon - April 1969
Despite internal
transportation dif ficulties,
BiafYa made
optimum use of indigenous
medical staff,
as well as of the
small number of
foreign volunteers.
BiafYan authorities
made few official
requests for outside
professionals or
doctors but accepted
those who volunteered.
Evacuation and Care
Outside Nigeria of
BiafYan Children
There was no wholesale
evacuation of Biaf'ran
children outside the
enclave, althoum
several thousand of
them were airlifted
to Gabon and Ivory
Coast and Sao Tome
for medical care.
BiafYan children at Caritas Camp in Gabon
In BiafYa, the regime
consistently maintained
that child care programs should be operated within BiafYa and that children
should not be takeri out of the country under anyone else's juridicial control.
They permitted some children to leave with the understanding that
this was only on a temporary basis.