The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written to former United States President Donald Trump, urging him to launch an independent international investigation into what he described as “state-sponsored genocidal killings” of Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East region.
In a letter dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu—who has remained in solitary confinement at Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters—called on Trump to act on his recent declaration that the U.S. was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”
Kanu began his letter with a personal tone, writing:
“I extend warm greetings to you in the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear.”
He referenced Trump’s October 31 declaration, stating:
“Your bold declaration on October 31, 2025, that the United States is ‘prepared to act’ militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population ignited hope in the hearts of millions who have been abandoned by the world.”
According to the detained IPOB leader, the violence against Christians in Nigeria has expanded beyond the country’s northern regions.
“You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat. I write to you now to reveal that 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 wrote.
Kanu urged Trump 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.”
Kanu’s letter documented what he termed “a hidden genocide” against Igbo Christians, referencing several past incidents that have drawn the attention of international human rights observers. These included the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 “Operation Python Dance” raid on his Afaraukwu home, and the 2020 Obigbo killings.
Quoting from human rights reports, Kanu wrote:
“Amnesty International (2016) reported ‘at least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed, bodies dumped in rivers.’ UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard confirmed that at least 60 were killed and over 70 injured in St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.”
He further alleged that:
“This was not a clash. It was a massacre of worshippers commemorating their fallen. In Aba, 22 were killed on-site, and 13 bodies were exhumed from a borrow pit. Children were executed for singing ‘Sweet Jesus.’”
Kanu directly accused the Nigerian military of perpetrating these attacks under the command of then-Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, writing:
“In 2021, President Buhari appointed him Ambassador to Benin, granting him diplomatic immunity to evade ICC prosecution—state-sponsored impunity on a genocidal scale.”
He claimed the Nigerian government was using the pretext of “counter-terrorism” to eliminate political and religious opponents in the South-East, adding that international silence had emboldened the perpetrators.
The letter also recounted Kanu’s personal ordeal since his first arrest in 2015. He said he had survived four assassination attempts and was,
“forcibly abducted from Kenya in an extraordinary rendition operation”
on June 20, 2021—an act later declared illegal by a Kenyan High Court.
Kanu reminded Trump that the Nigerian Court of Appeal had discharged and acquitted him in October 2022, yet the federal government had refused to obey the judgment.
“I was never released, so there was no re-arrest, only continued unlawful imprisonment in blatant violation of the constitutionally protected double jeopardy safeguards,” he stated.
He further cited findings from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, writing that his imprisonment had been declared “arbitrary, unlawful, politically motivated.”
According to him, his case symbolized,
“a state capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice.”
In the letter, Kanu repeated his central appeal to Trump:
“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.”
He also called for:
“emergency Congressional hearings on the Igbo Christian genocide”
and urged the U.S. government to impose Magnitsky Act sanctions on key Nigerian officials, including former Army Chief Tukur Buratai and former DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi.
Beyond accountability, Kanu appealed for international mediation toward peace through self-determination:
“We ask for an internationally-supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people. It is the only peaceful path to ending this circle of violence.”
Kanu’s tone grew emotional as he appealed directly to Trump’s sense of moral duty:
“Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks.”
“You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
The IPOB leader closed his letter by reaffirming his commitment to nonviolence and faith:
“We seek only justice, truth, and freedom, even from a prison cell.”
He signed off as:
“Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, Leader, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Prisoner of Conscience – DSS Custody, Abuja.”
His final lines invoked faith and moral courage:
“May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again.”
As of press time, neither the U.S. Embassy in Abuja nor the office of former President Donald Trump had issued a statement acknowledging receipt of Kanu’s letter. U.S. State Department officials also declined comment on whether any inquiry or humanitarian mission might follow.
However, international human rights advocates told Time Africa that Kanu’s letter was likely to “rekindle global attention” on Nigeria’s internal conflicts and the long-standing grievances of the Igbo population in the South-East.
A senior diplomatic analyst in Washington noted, “If the U.S. administration under Trump truly follows through on its commitment to defending persecuted Christians globally, this letter could become a defining test case.”
For now, Nnamdi Kanu remains in solitary confinement, his words echoing from a prison cell to the White House:
“One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.
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