In an open letter to US President Donald Trump, Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, claimed that the murder of Christians in Nigeria had moved to the South-East and was now taking Igbo life.
In the letter that was made public on Thursday, Kanu said that the wave of violence that was characterized as Christian persecution had spread beyond the northern area.
He said that Igbo communities had been affected by the “mass killing of Christians.”
Kanu also told Trump that he had escaped several assassination attempts, which he said were planned by the Nigerian government.
“In the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear, I extend warm greetings to you,” Kanu added. It was an honor for me to attend your campaign event in January 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa, as a practicing Jew who believes in the Judeo-Christian tradition that formed Western civilization.
Millions of people who have been abandoned by the world have found hope in your audacious statement on October 31, 2025, that the United States is “prepared to act” militarily and withdraw aid if Nigeria fails to safeguard its Christian community. You have witnessed the reality: Christians in Nigeria are in danger of extinction.
“I am writing to inform you that this genocide is not limited to the North; it has spread to the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being methodically wiped out under the pretense of counterterrorism.
“I am Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a Judeo-Christian civil rights movement that is nonviolent and peaceful. I have survived four recorded attempts by the Nigerian government to kill me since 2015. According to a Kenyan High Court verdict (Petition No. E282 of 2021), I was forcibly kidnapped from Kenya on June 20, 2021, in an extraordinary rendition operation that violated both Kenyan and international law. Despite this decision, I was forcibly hauled to Nigeria and placed in solitary imprisonment in Abuja for the single crime of upholding my people’s international law-guaranteed rights to life, faith, and self-determination.
A covert genocide against Judeo-Christians in Southeast Nigeria was revealed to the US President by Kanu.
“The same extremist-backed forces you have denounced in the North—Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani militias—operate with state complicity in the South-East and Igbo-speaking territories of Benue, Kogi, and Delta,” he added. However, the Nigerian military is the main offender in this case, protected by a false narrative that places the responsibility on victims. There is no denying the documentation of these crimes.
He revealed that in order to demonize IPOB, the Nigerian government used insecurity as a weapon.
Nigeria has declared IPOB a “terrorist organization” since my wrongful rendition, even though there is no proof of violence (U.S. State Department, 2021). used militias supported by the state to plan “unknown gunmen” attacks, then placed the blame on IPOB. killed more than 2,000 young Igbo people during “counterterrorism” operations (Intersociety, 2021–2025). He remarked, “This is Rwanda’s playbook: cause chaos, point the finger at the victim, and defend annihilation.”
