Benin, Midwest Region Capital, Changed Hands Twice in 12-Week Biafran Struggle - The essence of the Nigerian Civil war is hidden in the story of the battle of Benin, a dusty, shabby, historical town of little strategic value and much symbolic impact. Benin, the capital of the Midwest Region, has changed hands twice in the 12-week-old war. The troops of secessionist Biafra swept through it in a surprise attack Aug. 9 and then abandoned it last Wednesday to counterattacking federal soldiers. The federal government says its soldiers captured the town after a bloody battle, but Nigerians who watched the capture say that all Biafran soldiers had left by the time the federal soldiers arrived. They say that the only men who fell before the federal onslaught were defenseless Ibo civilians, members of the main tribe of Biafra, who maintain they are fighting soldiers who massacred 30,000 of them in northern Nigeria last year and are now bent on annihilating them all...

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