The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written to U.S. President Donald Trump, calling for an independent American-led investigation into what he described as “state-sponsored genocidal killings” targeting Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East region.
In the letter dated November 6, 2025, and transmitted through the United States Embassy in Abuja, Kanu appealed to President Trump to act on his recent declaration that Washington was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”
According to excerpts obtained by National concord , Kanu urged the U.S. government 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, who has been in solitary detention at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters since his re-arrest in 2021, praised Trump’s renewed focus on religious persecution in Nigeria, saying it had “rekindled hope in millions who feel abandoned by the world.”
“You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat,” Kanu wrote. “This genocide is not confined to the North; it has spread into the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the guise of counter-terrorism.”
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Citing documented incidents, Kanu referenced the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 Operation Python Dance raid on his Afaraukwu residence, and the 2020 Obigbo killings as evidence of a “hidden genocide” against Christians in the region.
He also cited reports from Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and the Nigerian rights group Intersociety, alleging that security forces killed dozens of worshippers during religious gatherings.
Kanu accused the Nigerian military under former Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, of carrying out the alleged atrocities, adding that Buratai’s later appointment as Ambassador to Benin was “a reward and shield from accountability.”
He recounted surviving four alleged assassination attempts and described his 2021 arrest in Kenya as an “extraordinary rendition,” which he noted had been ruled illegal by a Kenyan court. He further reminded Trump that Nigeria’s Court of Appeal had discharged and acquitted him in 2022, yet he remains in detention “in defiance of judicial orders.”
Kanu quoted findings from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which he said declared his imprisonment “arbitrary, unlawful, and politically motivated.”
As part of his appeal, Kanu called on President Trump to push for emergency Congressional hearings on what he described as the “Igbo Christian genocide” and to invoke the Magnitsky Act to sanction Nigerian officials allegedly complicit in the killings, including Buratai and former DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi.
He also renewed his call for “an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people,” insisting that it represents “the only peaceful path to ending this cycle of violence.”
“Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks,” Kanu wrote. “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,” reaffirming his commitment to peaceful advocacy and justice.
“We seek only truth, justice, and freedom, even from a prison cell,” he concluded. “May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again.”
