3. - usaid

Their recormendations included: (1) appointment to the U. S. AID Mission
in Nigeria of an Assistant Director for Relief and Rehabilitation to help
coordinate USG relief efforts, and to work with the Nigerian Red Cross,
ICRC, voluntary agencies, the National Rehabilitation Comnission of the FIVE,
and other nations; (2) the allocation of $3 million to be used for a variety
of projects such as emergency medical relief, camnunity rehabilitation fund,
emergency road repair and transport, assessm&t of food requirements,
Nigerianization of relief and rehabilitation and USAID Mission support to
relief agencies,
AID Disaster Relief Coordinator Role in Relief Operations
The AID Disaster Relief Coordinatorls office took a major part in
coordinating relief activities for NigeriaDiafra f'rom my 1968 to December
1968. AID/DRC was in daily contact with the Director, Central and West
African Affairs, AID; the
State Department Country
Director's office for
Nigeria in the office
of the Assistant
Secretary of State,
Bureau of African Affairs
and also served as a
technical advisor to the
Nigerian Task Force,
The ever increasing
nLnnber of victims, magnitude
and severity of
the civil war, and
difficulty of the relief
operations required the
assignment of a specific
fill time staff to be
responsible for
Nigeria/Biafra relief, at mugu - October 1968
Wing November and
December, the Nigerian
situation changed from a short term disaster emergency to long-term relief
and rehabilitation, and was assigned to special personnel in State and AID.
AID/DRC continued its reporting through February 15, 1969, and then
summarized available information through June 30, 1969 for inclusion in
this report,
Special Coordinator and Staff
mq, ICRC, Nigeria Red Cross and USAID officials
In February 1969, the National Security Council completed a review of
events in Nigeria and Biafra. Recomnendations were made to President Nixon,
who &mediately appointed C. Clyde Ferguson as Special Coordinator for
Relief for Nigeria/Biafra with the rank of Ambassador. The President gave
krim a special mandate to devote his full time to mobilizing humanitarian
forces to break the relief impasse.