3. - usaid

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES RELIEF OPERATIONS
?he World Council of Churches (WCC) basic policy in NigeridBiafra relief
was to work throwJ the International Comnittee of the Red Cross to bring
aid to civilian victims on both sides. In March of 1968, WCC Division of
Inte+Church Aid, Refugee & World Service (DICAIWS) arranged for the first
charter flight of the Protestant Churches to c a . urgently needed highprotein
foods and medicines to the people in the former Eastern Reglon. WCC
also coo~erated with Caritas and ICRC in the early relief flights to Biafra
from Europe prior to the establishment of the Sao Tame airlift operation.
Throughout 1968 and 1969, WCC directed its relief efforts to both sides.
0-1 January 15, 1969, WCC found it necessaqy to make a temporary change in
policy due to the suspension at that time of ICRC flights f'rum Fernando Po
to Biafra by the Government of Equatorial Guinea, and sent $250,000 to
Nordchurchaid to assist in operating the Sao Tome airlift.
At the time of its cash donation for the Sao Tbme airlift, WCC also set
aside $250,000 for the Christian Cmcil of Nigeria for increasing the
relief program in Federal controlled areas.
Biafra
The WCC did not itself send any personnel directly into Biaf'ra. Ehpatriates
working in the Protestant Churches Rellef Program in the area were sponsored
by Mission Societies or other sendine: agencies. TheJ.r work in Biafra,
however, was cmed out under the name of WCC.
?he Protestant group cooperated with Biafran authorities, ICRC and Catholic
pups in aperatirp: camps and feeding centers. Protestant pups in Biafra
received all the supplies airlifted fYm Sao Tome to Uli every other night,
no matter what the original source. The agreement between Protestant and
Catholic pups to alternate in receiving supplies rather than dlvidjng up
each night provided for a fair and efficient method of receiving and distributing
relief goods to the feedinp: centers. The Pmtestant ~;roups
established the following amqernents for handling their supplies,. A
minister of one of the churches was placed in charge of administration. He
supervised the off-loading from the planes ard the reloading into church
trucks. Convoys of six to eight trucks escorted by private cars transported
the supplies. 0-I "Protestant nights" about 30 trucks delivered the relief
items from Uli to the Central Protestant store a few miles away. WCC
theological students from Trinity College Seminary rode beside the truck
drivers and supervised the negotiation of mad blocks between the airstrip
and the store. All trucks were unloaded before dawn. Later in the morning
way-bills were issued for trucks to take the supplies forward to lu provincial
stores. Zorting was done at the central store. Theological
students checked the unloa&ng and reloading of each truck. Apart flwn a
small reserve stock retained at the central store, all supplies wNch came
in during a night went out to the provincial stores by ten olclock the next
mom. Drivers returned to the central store by late afternoan to prepare
for the next operation. At the provincial stores, run by Pmtestant
missionaries, they kept a week's reserves to supply hospitals, sickbays,
feeding centers, and refugee camps in their ream.
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