The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written to United States President Donald Trump, urging him to launch an independent investigation into what he described as “state-sponsored genocidal killings” of Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East region.
In the letter dated November 6, 2025, and reportedly delivered through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu—who remains in solitary confinement at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters—appealed to Trump to act on his recent remarks that the United States was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”
Kanu, in the letter obtained by SaharaReporters, called on the former U.S. President to “launch a U.S.-led independent inquiry into state-sponsored massacres of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”
“You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat,” Kanu wrote. “This genocide is not confined to the North; it has metastasized into the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the guise of counter-terrorism.”
He cited several violent incidents, including the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 Operation Python Dance raid on his Afaraukwu home, and the 2020 Obigbo killings, describing them as evidence of “a hidden genocide” against the Igbo Christian population.
Quoting multiple human rights reports, including those from Amnesty International, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and the Nigerian rights group Intersociety, Kanu alleged that government forces were directly responsible for attacks on unarmed worshippers and civilians.
According to him, “Amnesty International reported at least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed, with bodies dumped in rivers. The UN Special Rapporteur confirmed that 60 were killed and over 70 injured in St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.”
He further accused the Nigerian military, under the command of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, of carrying out the killings and later being shielded from prosecution through diplomatic postings.
“In 2021, President Buhari appointed him Ambassador to Benin, granting him diplomatic immunity to evade ICC prosecution,” Kanu alleged, calling it “state-sponsored impunity on a genocidal scale.”
Recounting his personal ordeal since 2015, the IPOB leader said he had survived four assassination attempts and was “forcibly abducted from Kenya” in what he termed an “extraordinary rendition” operation in 2021—an act a Kenyan court later declared illegal.
He reminded Trump that Nigeria’s Court of Appeal had discharged and acquitted him in 2022, but the federal government had refused to release him in defiance of the ruling.
“I was never released, so there was no re-arrest—only continued unlawful imprisonment in blatant violation of the constitutionally protected double jeopardy safeguards,” Kanu stated.
He also called for “emergency Congressional hearings on the Igbo Christian genocide” and the imposition of Magnitsky Act sanctions on senior Nigerian officials, including former Army Chief Buratai and former DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi.
Kanu further urged Trump to support “an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people,” describing it as “the only peaceful path to ending this circle of violence.”
“Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks,” Kanu wrote in closing. “You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
He signed the letter as “Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, Leader, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Prisoner of Conscience – DSS Custody, Abuja.”
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