Efforts to trace the thousands of children ‘airlifted’ out of their places of origin in present day South Eastern Nigeria (during the Nigeria – Biafra War, 1967 - 1970) to places as diverse as Ivory Coast and Gabon is ongoing. At the end of the war, some of the ‘airlifted children’ were reunited with their families.
The Echezona Project seeks to identify and reunite children who were not returned to their kith and kin in South Eastern Nigeria.
The Echezona Project has already, via research undertaken in France, Nigeria, Ireland and the United States, sourced the identities and ‘points of departure’ of thousands of these children, collated details of the airlifts and will shortly be progressing to using trace technology to identify the families of the ‘airlifted children’ with the objective, where possible, to reunite these children with their filial relatives.
The Echezona Project Team, which I am a part of, is comprised of experts in diverse fields with myriad of experience, inclusive of persons who are part of ongoing efforts at using trace technology to reunite displaced peoples from the El Salvador Civil Wars and versed in ensuring accountability and closure for episodes of Genocide and Mass Atrocities
The right to an identity is an inalienable fundamental right. Let us strive to ensure Never Again!
Picture: Some of the Biafran children at point of airlift (usually, the only mark of name/origin is the little piece of white paper stuck unto the heads of the children as shown on one of the boys in the picture – this piece of paper would have dropped off by the time of arrival at the reception/refugee center)
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