FROM his solitary confinement cell in Nigeria’s State Security headquarters, detained Biafran independence leader Nnamdi Kanu has issued an urgent appeal to US President Donald Trump, calling for military intervention and sanctions over what he describes as “state-sponsored genocide” against Christians and Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria.
The extraordinary plea, dated November 6 and delivered through the US Embassy in Abuja, comes as the Nigerian government has firmly rejected Trump’s October 31 threat to “act militarily and cut aid” if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population. Both the President of Nigeria and the Foreign Affairs Minister have dismissed the threats as unwarranted interference in the nation’s internal affairs. Trump has repeated his threats.
While the Nigerian government and the majority of citizens have expressed shock and outrage at Trump’s threats, viewing them as a violation of national sovereignty, Kanu – leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – has embraced the US president’s intervention, urging him to follow through with concrete action.
“Your bold declaration ignited hope in the hearts of millions who have been abandoned by the world,” Kanu wrote to Trump. “You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
Kanu, who has been held without trial since his controversial 2021 rendition from Kenya – later ruled illegal by a Kenyan court – detailed what he alleges is a hidden genocide in Nigeria’s Igbo heartland, where the Biafran separatist movement is strongest.
The IPOB leader cited multiple incidents, including the 2016 massacres in Nkpor and Aba, where he claims Nigerian security forces killed over 150 peaceful Christian worshippers. Amnesty International documented at least 150 deaths in these incidents, with bodies reportedly dumped in rivers.
“This genocide is not confined to the North; it has metastasised into the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the guise of counter-terrorism,” Kanu wrote.
He specifically called out former Army Chief Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, whom he accused of orchestrating the killings and who now serves as Nigeria’s ambassador to Benin – a posting Kanu claims was designed to grant him diplomatic immunity from International Criminal Court prosecution.
Kanu’s dramatic appeal includes requests for a US-led independent inquiry with access to alleged mass graves, emergency Congressional hearings on what he terms “the Igbo Christian genocide,” and Magnitsky Act sanctions against top Nigerian officials.
Most controversially, he urged 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.”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has declared Kanu’s imprisonment “arbitrary, unlawful, politically motivated.” Despite a 2022 Nigerian Court of Appeal order discharging and acquitting him, the government has refused to release him, defying its own judiciary.
“I was never released, so there was no re-arrest, only continued unlawful imprisonment,” Kanu wrote, describing his detention as “a state capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice.”
The letter reveals Kanu has survived four assassination attempts and has been held in solitary confinement at DSS headquarters since his forcible return to Nigeria in June 2021.
His appeal to Trump places the detained separatist leader in direct opposition to the Nigerian government’s official position. While federal authorities have categorically dismissed Trump’s threats and rejected his characterisation of violence against Christians as genocide, Kanu’s letter validates the US president’s concerns and calls for even stronger action.
Signing off as “Prisoner of Conscience,” Kanu invoked biblical imagery: “May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again.”
The letter underscores the deepening political crisis surrounding Kanu’s detention and the simmering tensions in southeastern Nigeria, where separatist sentiment remains strong more than five decades after the catastrophic Biafran War claimed over one million lives.
