The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written a detailed letter to former United States President Donald Trump, praising him for drawing global attention to what he described as the “genocide against Christians and Jewish adherents” in Nigeria.
The letter, dated November 6 and released through his legal counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, commended Trump for his recent remarks suggesting that the U.S. was prepared to intervene militarily or withdraw aid if the Nigerian government fails to curb attacks on Christians.
Kanu said Trump’s position “ignited hope among millions who have long felt abandoned,” insisting that the former president’s comments were “factual, verifiable, and consistent with the daily realities” faced by people of Judeo-Christian faith in the country.
He stressed that the attacks were not limited to the North, claiming that similar violence had spread to the South-East, South-South, and parts of the Middle Belt.
“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, who has been in custody since June 2021 following his interception in Kenya, reminded Trump of his “ordeal” and the legal determinations surrounding his case.
He recounted surviving assassination attempts, his extraordinary rendition, and the rulings of both the Nigerian Court of Appeal and a Kenyan High Court, which declared his transfer to Nigeria illegal.
According to him, despite the Court of Appeal judgment of October 13, 2022, which discharged and acquitted him, and the United Nations Working Group Opinion declaring his continued detention arbitrary, he remains in solitary confinement.
“Over 1,596 days since my abduction, I am still held in defiance of court orders and international law,” he said.
The IPOB leader alleged that while peaceful protesters and activists face harsh crackdowns, bandits and terrorists are treated with leniency.
He accused security agencies of using “unknown gunmen” scenarios to justify killings in the South-East, claiming over 2,000 Igbo youths have been killed during so-called counter-terrorism operations in recent years.
Citing specific incidents—including the 2016 Nkpor killings and the 2017 Port Harcourt pro-Trump rally where IPOB members were shot—Kanu told the former U.S. president that he possesses documentary evidence of what he called “state-backed atrocities”.
Kanu urged Trump to push for an international inquiry into alleged atrocities against Christians and Jews in Nigeria, and to initiate Congressional hearings based on Nigeria’s refusal to obey court decisions.
He also called for targeted sanctions under the U.S. Magnitsky Act on top Nigerian security officials, and renewed the demand for an internationally-supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people.
“History will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks,” he wrote.
“You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
Kanu ended the letter by reaffirming IPOB’s commitment to non-violence and expressing confidence that international action could help resolve what he described as a growing humanitarian crisis.
