For these three years, this conflict torn the country apart. It was everywhere in the news that this African country was burning. Many had been killed in their homes and offices. It was not yet a full blown war. Some knew it was not going to stop in the way things had been going. At first many thought it was a disturbance, but the disturbance soon turned into a full-scale insurrection that carried these whole three fruitless years. The remote cause was the death of more great names in the military which many in opposition to the new government plotted.
A passenger plane with General Udor on board skidded off the runway close to the airport, caught fire and crashed into a crowded office. Everyone died. The plotters armed to the teeth choose to fulfill their agreement with General kofi to eliminate General Udor who would succeed the retiring General or as an option to grant each region a self-government. General Udor had made a speech full of invective against the government in a recent live telecast, challenging the sovereign power of General Kofi who had been a thorn in the flesh of the existing government headed by General Sango. There had been a lot of bad blood between the two families and everyone knew it. They too knew it would end with war and within them, they were preparing for the showdown or a bloody coup. General Udor who was naturally a cautious person anticipated this war, that he sent his children and family out of the country six months earlier.
In previous crashes where the plane could be diverted to another region, this time there was no demand, no diversion. The deal was carried out as planned. Then Udor died. In schools, barracks, stations and government offices, flag stood up all over the place and in little less than two hours, the news flashed around Kandala and thus and thus around the world.
The death of General Udor was giving the widest publicity. He could not have died. He deserved to live at least to help unite the country and to save it from harm. He was really a loyal person to the government of General Sango and he knew it all why the problems between the two generals continued. His military mind lost no time at all in analyzing the situation. He knew it all – the tricks, the many tricks of military life. More so, he would soon succeed him. He had planned to call them as families and unite them for a stronger territory, to meet as colleagues even after military life. But it all failed.
That period, there were rumor of continuity of the war which had lasted for years in Liberia. He had been sent for a peace keeping mission with fellow soldiers on board and with him all these souls perished. The media brought surer and speedier news and reports, then their competent pressmen who always dig for reliable information for the public. This was with caution. They heavily censor their news to avoid arrest and interrogation by the army. Their competence was not always measured, because they were highly trusted. Of course it was natural to expect reliable news at this moment. There were news and everyone could be a newsman. The crash was big enough to make a headline for the country for at least one week. But for those who could have brought speedier and healthy reports, competitions were fierce among them and many unconfirmed details were on air. The other way: government sources denied there had been deliberate cover-up despite the speed of the leakages from the press.
General Sango got to the venue of the crash devoid of usual security details and motley entourage that typified such outing. He alighted from his gleaning black hummer jeep squeezing his face as the scorching midday sun hit him. He was truly sad and it showed all over him. He could not talk openly. He had lost the power to say anything. The few men from the military family by his side saluted and stood all in distinctive way they favored for that mournful moment. For some fleeting moments, he struggled to adjust himself with the situation and many eyes were looking intently at him. He had lost a very close friend and trusted ear in the military family; a unique man in all senses who could carry the baton after him. There was weeping, mourning and slapping of the chest from the seething crowd of humans that came from all corridors of life and the country part where the news had reached. The Lieutenants and junior Generals stood eyeing him to declare war against the plotters of this crash. They desperately demanded to know the cause of the incessant crash that had claimed the most virtuous comrades in the life saving profession in the most recent times, but he maintained a conspiratorial silence with some who knew the cause. Some even interrupted and spoke in his face, a thing not quite agreeable to military system.
Before his arrival, they had gone on the swig, swelled and billowed like a tattered kite in pain, wearing placards and protest cards. On and on, they pressed forward, men of all vitality, trained all over their lives to obey the last order. General Sango saw the impact of that crash as he beheld mangled burnt human flesh, spread all over the area, with non left to continue with even life threatening injuries. The bodies of the victims were not a pretty sight. Some got burnt and some lost without any trace. He looked for sometimes not only like one who has lost his memory but his power of speech. From the time the news got to the public, he went to the radio, to console the nation and affected families, bidding them to be of good spirit and cooperate for better understanding and way forward for his government. In his speech he called on Allah to grant the soul of these ones eternal rest ‘until that day in paradise, when the dwellers shall think of nothing, but their bliss, together with their wives and children, then they shall recline in shady groves upon soft couches. It was his popular quote from Surah’.