BIAFRA: STARVATION, ONE OF BRITAIN'S MAJESTIC RESOURCES IN THE KILLING OF BIAFRANS (PART 2)

STARVATION, ONE OF BRITAIN'S MAJESTIC RESOURCES IN THE KILLING OF BIAFRANS (PART 2)

By Obulose Chidiebere N.
For Family Writers Press



Malaya:

During the so-called "Malayan Emergency" of 1948-1960, the British government introduced "food denial" programme called "Operation Starvation". It was aimed at starving out all those who were resisting the British looting spree of the country's treasury. Method of operation included ration deduction, puncturing of canned food materials at the time of purchases and forbidding of meals at work places. It was the British that introduced the use of herbicides in military conflict. During the Malayan Emergency, British forces extensively sprayed herbicides 2, 4, 5 trichlorophenoxy acid to drastically keep vegetational growth down and destroy food crops. They had already tried out arsenic-based preparation and sodium arsenate which were so toxic that the poisonous substances threatened local populations. They were later withdrawn. Two others -  trioxene and diesoline were brought as replacements which did not only kill crops but also made the soil grossly infertile.

The Vietnamese war was the first conflict in which military forces used herbicides and dangerous chemicals to kill on a large scale,  various agricultural crops. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were swept into concentration camps by the British where they were cruelly subjected to curfews and made to labour as slaves on the plantations. Any minor infraction was often and severely punished with food reduction.

Biafra:

The Civil War of Nigeria between 1967 and 1970  was one of the most deadly war that took place in the twentieth century. Largely due to how Britain hurriedly left the country shortly after the declaration of independence in early 1960, a whole lot of problems propped up. The corrupted political system and the grossly ignorant citizens lumped together from divergent part's of the British concocted Nigeria, were a major underlying factors. For as long as any Christian, whether liberal or traditional survived, the 1968 Biafran genocide would remain memorable as one of the worst crimes in which the evil British government, for the first time in human history, was readily prepared to condone mass starvation to death, millions of Biafran citizens, as a means of implementing an aspect of her foreign policy. Photographs of the atrocities being perpetrated in Biafraland appeared in most newspapers, the general perception as conveyed  by media information was that the children were starved to death as a result of famine occasioned by the civil war. Not a single newspaper report deemed it fit and professional enough to point to the world that the death of Biafra children was an intended siege which was supported by the then British government's official opposition party and by nearly every Commonwealth correspondent at Fleet Street.

STARVATION, ONE OF BRITAIN'S MAJESTIC RESOURCES IN THE KILLING OF BIAFRANS (Part 1)

It may have been that the intelligent public accepted the sale of arms to Nigeria as a punitive measure but considered it necessary which was essential for national economic survival. The only other morbid justification which I have personally heard and advanced by ordinary people for instance, as a reason, is with "an awareness of what is happening presently with Britain,  which is that if they do not support the so-called Nigerians in their efforts to crush Biafra and extinguish as many as possible, they shall purposefully loose their investments which are variously estimated at between £100 million and £200 million.

The British supplied and armed Nigeria with mercenaries during the genocidal war all in the bid to protecting  their corporate oil interests. When it appeared so glaringly that Nigeria tended towards victory, Britain increased her supplies of arms and ammunition. Her greed to secure cheap oil saw them supporting blockades against Biafrans which resulted in countless number of people starving to death. The then British Commonwealth Minister - George Thomas stated in 1967 that the "sole immediate British interest in Nigeria was that the Nigerian economy should have to be brought back to normalcy in which our substantial trade and investment in the country could be further developed and particularly, so we could regain access to important oil installations".

Yemen:

Since 2015, Yemen has been in civil war. The fighting has divided control of the country along sectarian lines which had resulted in deaths of over 10,000 Yemenese. The conflict has gravely decimated the country's economy.

Yemen was though fragile prior to the war but her currency, industry, transport infrastructure and public services have all been virtually destroyed within two years. Millions are jobless, food and fuel prices have astronomically gone up. Estimated 17 million Yemenese or 60 percent of the country's population are presently in dire need of urgent humanitarian assistance. About 7 million are living daily in crippling starvation awaiting their deaths.


The physical destruction which Yemen suffers now has mostly been the handiwork of Saudi Arabian led evil coalition which is ably being supported, advised and aided by Britain which has solidly sided Yemen's Sunni Muslim President against the Houthis, an armed Shi'ite militia group under whose control, is the country's capital.city, Sana'a with most of the western coastal region. The British are what is being referred to today as the "Command Room" which renders advises to the Saudis on their military incursions. It comes as little surprise therefore that Yemen's farms and agricultural industry appears as sustained military targets. Yemenis are  presently starving because of this very unrelenting British acts of criminality and naked impunity.


Edited by Peter Oshagwu
For Family Writers Press