Petition Requests Relief for Biafra As Nigeria Blocks Aid to Victims

A petition is circulating around Harvard urging "a massive international relief effort" to prevent further starvation in Biafra.

The petition, initiated by Azinna Nwafor '64, assistant professor and chairman of the Board of Advisors of Afro-American Studies, asks the United Nations, the Organization for African Unity, and the United States government to "act immediately to prevent any risks of carnage and decimation of the defeated Biafrans." Biafra gave up its 30-month struggle to secede from Nigeria on Monday.

Nwafor, a Biafran, said he was afraid that the Nigerian government, which has refused outside food from several international agencies, intended to permit a massacre of the defeated Biafrans. "Two million people have already died in this genocidal war. We must exhaust all available resources so that these millions of innocent people can be kept alive," Nwafor said.

Nwafor has collected more than 500 signatures from the University. He expects to continue his efforts throughout the week. Signers include Dean May; Chase N., Peterson '52, dean of Admissions; Edward C. Banfield, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Urban "Government, and Ewart G. Guinier 33, chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies.

The petition says "that unless prompt and decisive action is undertaken, a much greater calamity awaits these people who have already suffered so horned usually in the last three years."

Jean Mayer, professor of Nutrition at the School of Public Health, is currently serving as special consultant to President Nixon on nutrition. After a trip to Biafra last year, Mayer recommended to the government that the United States send relief to the starving Biafrans.