The cargo plane flew in low over southeastern Nigeria, its lights out, its radio off, its pilot navigating by the glow of refinery flares along the coast.
On the ground, a team of boys suddenly ran out of the bush to light rows of kerosene lamps to guide the craft toward the tiny airstrip, just 75 feet wide and 1,200 feet long.
Aboard were 26 tons of antibiotics, flour and salted fish, as well as a 34-year-old Irish priest named Dermot Doran.
Father Doran was one of 1,000 priests and nuns, mostly from Ireland, who had been working in the area when the fighting broke out.
Overnight, they pivoted from their peacetime roles as educators — Father Doran had been a high school principal — to aid workers during one of the 20th century’s worst humanitarian crises.
Persons:
Dermot Doran, Father Doran
Organizations:
Nigerian Army
Locations:
Nigeria, Biafra, Ireland