”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 inquiry into the ‘state-sponsored genocidal killings’ of Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East region.”
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has written to US President Donald Trump, calling for a US-led independent inquiry into alleged “state-sponsored genocidal killings” in Nigeria’s South-East region, “according to SAHARA REPORTERS reporting.”
In the letter, dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the US Embassy in Abuja, Kanu appealed to Trump to act on his recent declaration that the US was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.” Kanu, who remains in solitary detention at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters, urged Trump to launch an inquiry with “full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”
Kanu stated that the “genocide is not confined to the North; it has metastasized into the Igbo heartland,” citing the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 “Operation Python Dance,” and the 2020 Obigbo killings as evidence. He referenced human rights reports, noting that “Amnesty International (2016) reported ‘at least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed, bodies dumped in rivers.’”
He also called for “emergency Congressional hearings on the Igbo Christian genocide” and the imposition of Magnitsky Act sanctions on top Nigerian officials, including former Army Chief Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai. Kanu further appealed for US support for “an internationally-supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people,” describing it as “the only peaceful path to ending this circle of violence.”