The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written to United States President Donald Trump, accusing the Nigerian government of perpetrating what he described as genocide against Igbo Christians in the South-East region.
In a letter dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu urged Trump to launch an independent investigation into alleged state-sponsored killings in Eastern Nigeria and to impose targeted sanctions on key Nigerian officials implicated in rights abuses. The letter, shared on X Thursday by his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, comes ahead of Kanu’s trial tomorrow, November 7, 2025.
Kanu said his letter was prompted by Trump’s recent declaration that the US was prepared to act militarily and cut aid to Nigeria if the government failed to protect Christians from persecution. He alleged that the persecution of Christians in Nigeria had extended beyond the northern region to the Igbo heartland, where, according to him, government forces have committed atrocities under the guise of counter-terrorism operations.
“Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat. I write to reveal that this genocide has metastasized into the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated,” Kanu stated.
The IPOB leader, who described his movement as a peaceful and non-violent civil rights organization, claimed to have survived four assassination attempts by state agents since 2015. He also reiterated that his 2021 arrest and rendition from Kenya to Nigeria were illegal, citing court rulings in both countries and a 2022 United Nations opinion declaring his detention arbitrary.
Kanu listed a series of incidents which he said amounted to crimes against humanity, including the Nkpor Biafra Heroes Day killings (2016), Aba massacre (2016), Operation Python Dance II in Afaraukwu (2017), Obigbo killings (2020), and the Port Harcourt Trump solidarity rally (2017), alleging that hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed during these operations.
He accused the Nigerian military and security agencies of complicity in the killings and identified former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd), and the current Director-General of the DSS, Yusuf Bichi, among those who should face international sanctions.
Kanu also appealed to Trump to support a U.S.-led congressional hearing and an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people, describing it as “the only peaceful path to ending the cycle of violence.”
“Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks. You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa,” he wrote.
Kanu, who signed the letter as a “Prisoner of Conscience,” attached several documents to support his claims, including the 2022 Court of Appeal judgment that discharged him, United Nations and Amnesty International reports on human rights abuses, and the Kenyan High Court judgment condemning his rendition.
