<p>To force the secessionist Biafrans into submission, the Nigerian government applied starvation as a weapon of war by blockading Biafra by sea, land, and air. Cutting off their food supplies, there was economic hardship in Biafra. Many civilians, especially women and children, were dying of hunger and hunger-related diseases. Humanitarian agencies were faced with the option of respecting the territorial integrity of Nigeria and meeting the humanitarian needs of Biafra. Hence, some international humanitarian organisations defied the Nigerian blockades by taking night flights of food and relief materials to Biafra. While a great proportion of the Nigerian civil war historiography has addressed the Biafran humanitarian crisis, very few have accessed the policies that drove this conflict and how they can help to address the contemporary humanitarian crisis in Gaza and elsewhere. Using archival sources and ethnographic interviews, this paper examines the responses of international humanitarian organisations to the Biafran humanitarian crisis amidst the anti-humanitarian policies of the Nigerian government. It argues that though the action of humanitarian aid providers was offensive to the Nigerian government, defying the blockades was necessary to confront the Nigerian anti-humanitarian policies. The article concludes that breaking the blockades was the last resort in reaching out to the dying Biafrans as they considered it a moral obligation to save the lives of Biafrans.</p>