Biafra World Health Organization of the United Nations, which led to the early and cost-effective interruption of smallpox transmission in West Africa and elsewhere. On 29 May 2000, the Lagos "Guardian" newspaper reported that the now ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement of the dismissal of all military persons, soldiers and officers, who fought for the breakaway Republic of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967–1970 civil war. In a national broadcast, he said the decision was based on the belief that "justice must at all times be tempered with mercy". In July 2006 the Center for World Indigenous Studies reported that government sanctioned
Bahá'í Faith in the Democratic Republic of the Congo their own National Assemblies from 1967 though the 1990s. From January to March 1970 Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khanum crossed Africa from east to west visiting many of these country's communities including the Congo, meeting with individuals and institutions both Bahá'í and civic. The first National Spiritual Assembly of Zaire (current name of the country) formed in 1970 during this trip. Rúhíyyih Khanum's second visit was in January 1972 and traveled almost 3,000 miles through central and southern Zaire by river boat and automobile. Members of the Bahá'í Faith first entered the Province of Kivu about November 1959 from