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As a result, about the only food that reaches the Biafrans is flown to the Spanish island of Fernando Po or the Portuguese island of Sao Tome and then, under cover of night, airlifted into the bush. The planes, which are used on other nights to fly in arms and ammunition, land on a lantern-lit stretch of highway somewhere between Owerri and Port Harcourt, frequently under fire from federal ack-ack guns. Because of the high risk, the pilots demand high wages, and the total cost of one shipment of food from Europe can be as much as $25,000. Thus, the relief agencies can afford only one or two a week, and about 1,000 tons of their powdered milk and eggs, baby food and other supplies have piled up in Fernando Po, awaiting reshipment. Meantime, Gowon's agents are reportedly trying to stop flights by offering the pilots as much as $100,000 to hijack and sabotage the planes.
Ojukwu has also said no to a British offer of $600,000 in relief funds. His reason: Britain sells arms to Gowon. Therefore, says Ojukwu, to give food at the same time would only "fatten the Biafrans for slaughter with British-made weapons." Meanwhile his countrymen need an estimated 200 tons of protein food a day to survive, and are getting only about 40. Ojukwu insists that the only way to protect Biafra's sovereignty is to fly the food in. He proposes mercy flights during the daytime, but these require the cooperation of federal Nigeria, which has threatened to shoot down the planes. At week's end relief officials were working on another plan: they reported that Gowon may be willing to let International Red Cross workers distribute food that would be shipped through Biafran ports now held by his troops.
Seeking Sovereignty. The suffering has not brought the two sides any closer to resuming diplomatic talks, which were broken off last month in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. The federal government demands that the Biafrans acknowledge that they are citizens of one country—Nigeria—before any serious bargaining can begin. On the other hand, the Biafrans, who walked out of the Kampala conference, insist on a cease-fire before talking further, since such an agreement would give them the status of a sovereign equal in any negotiations. Ojukwu himself admits that if the war turns into a guerrilla fight in the bush many of his army officers "are not tough enough for that." But the Biafrans apparently choose to die from starvation rather than reach an agreement with the federal government that might expose them to another slaughter.