Seventeen

" Is that a threat or a warning? Let this fact get right into your minds, that I cannot compromise my comfort and military strength with anything. Gone are the days you infect our government with hatred, rejection, discrimination and abandonment. So?" General Kofi asked furiously.

"This war has lasted and it was for no good. Your accusation over our diplomatic ties with many African nations is unfounded. We wonder who is feeding you with such though. As for the war, any reason given for allowing it to continue is not justified. Those reasons against revolt and common sense is too slim to be compared with the situation on hand .If it continues, be assured that it would increase barbarity, wickedness and lasting hatred even to the unborn generation. We demand the withdrawal of your troupes immediately. More so, this struggle, for more regional autonomy and saying no to true federalism which disfavors many regions should be considered a stop. As we pray this war to end, we believe that the abuse of human rights must not go unchecked. This is a cruel, capricious and unjust system of government. "

"As this meeting lasts or even before it was called, a decision had been postponed indefinitely. Honesty may be an honest idea".

" But only when something good can be achieved through it" Lubinga puts in.

" Yet it has little value in the life and death struggle for survival and security". General Kofi replied.

" Now the world count on you for Security".

" Vain opinions, illusory hope and false valuations" he said and stood up.

" We must not fail to add that the size and complexity of this problem requires urgent call to action". Knor told him

"The issue that brought this meeting is complicated by the fact that a vital fact is missing. He took the mantle trickishly. It is conceited of you to assume that you know all the details involve and that you will know how best to follow this" he replied.

He was a total airhead. They don't know what to make out of him. The meeting ended without resolution. They made many threatening utterances to see him concede grudgingly for the interest of peace but it was not possible. More trouble ahead. Quest for peace was not in sight. He was the now in the public, the crop-up of every story and headlines. The media and the UN had always been interested in speeches made during battles. It could be recorded and archived for thousands of years for books of history of wars. It was also one of the many things that throws light on the character of a general.  General Kofi could not accept any option for peace and his instigators were more at encouraging him for more wreckage. Already, the escape of General Sango had left the baton of power floating and someone had to pick it up; a stronger hand. Damisa was not ready for defense. He considered himself too young to continued waging war against Kofi. Kofi was a strong fighter who could only stop when he considered everything wheeled to his choice. As for Damisa he was only trying to be strong for a short period, but was ready to seal any condition for peace with General Kofi. It was a voluntary acquiescence which he claimed was the best to make the war end. His men had been eliminated and suppressed to a fault, while the few others had joined the current super power. Those with the means had flown abroad like General Sango and for the remnant, no place was safe for them again.

The war continued and now produced a surge of patriotic feelings. It rained in seldom these months and the years the war lasted, the blood spilled had become great and the forces of nature had turned it back on man and the earth. Like many other wars fought in Africa it was deadly. The sight of human heads without body and pregnant women who delivered and died at the roadside with their sucklers and toddlers struck terror into the heart and such sight worsened within days. Limbless adults and children were in increase, sitting at the roadside without shelter. Their cloths had been stained by blood and was almost rag and smells badly. Others were children who were left and abandoned with their protruded stomach and thin sticks of foot. They had badly been malnourished. It was called Kwashiorkor in West Africa. Hunger had eaten deep their flesh and left them dry with only some veins outcropped.  Many regions came under heavy shellfire and many more were left shell shocked. Bunch of squad sprouted from nowhere and were trained perfectly to perfection for more elimination and they were eliminated. They were the main targets of the war.  At this point a horrific account of widespread rape and pillage continued. International societies were at their best sending relief materials worth millions of Dollars and their men had risked their life and parachuted into the enemy territory in search of war victims. Many deaths. Some died out of torture and physical  brutality. Others were beheaded in secret and head matcheted out of the body and set ablaze.