Charity flights to Biafra on again-official

From Alan McElwain in Rome MERCY flights into starving Biafra by Roman Catholic and German protestant-financed planes, suspended late last month because of intense
Nigerian ack-ack fire, have been resumed with attempts to bring the planes down worse than ever.
Four planes are involved in the joint operation, two chartered by the Rome-based Catholic relief organisation, Caritas Internationalis, and two by the German organisatiOn Deakortesches Hilfswerk,
The planes are chartered on the Portuguese island of Sao Tome and flown to an airstrip near Uli, in central Biafra.
Fr. N. Frank, of Caritas Internatinnalis, who co-ordinates the clandestine flights, said this week that 55 flights carrying a total of 650 tons of food and medicines had been accomplished since the operation began in April.
The flights were suspended for about a week because of the "intense accuracy" of the Nigerian fire and also in the hope that talks between the. Nigerians and Biafrans might succeed. Unfortunately, they have failed. • "The Nigerians have increased both the intensity and the accuracy of their ack-ack fire in the last weeks," Fr. Frank said. "They are using radar and make it extremely dangerous for our planes even when they are flying above clouds."
Other relief organisations, including Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services, Misereor (Germany) and War on Want have been contributing money and supplies for the mercy flights.