Kanu Urges Trump To Investigate Christian Genocide In Nigeria

Detained leader of outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has urged United States President Donald Trump to investigate what he described as “state-sponsored genocidal killings” of Christians and the Igbo people in Nigeria especially in the South East.

Kanu, who is under the custody of the Department of Security Service (DSS) and undergoing trial for alleged terrorism leveled against him by the federal government, made the call in a petition dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the US Embassy in Abuja.

He told the US President that the killings were being perpetrated by the Boko Haram terrorists and their allies such as ISWAP and Islamic jihad, not just in the north but in many parts of Middle Belt and southern Nigeria with intention to wipe out the Christian population.

In the letter, Kanu called on Trump to carry out his recent threat that if the Nigerian government fails stop the killings, the United States was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”

Kanu said it has become incumbent on President 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.”

Part of the letter read: “I extend warm greetings to you in the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear.

“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.”

He added, “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.

“The same extremist-backed forces you have condemned in the North – Boko Haram, ISWAP and Fulani militia operate with state complicity in the South East and the Igbo- speaking territories of Benue, Kogi and Delta. But here, the Nigerian military itself is the primary perpetrator, shielded by a false narrative that blames the victim.”

The IPOB leader cited several incidents which he claimed were evidence of “a hidden genocide” against Judeo-Christians in the South-East, including the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 “Operation Python Dance” raid on his Afaraukwu home, and the 2020 Obigbo killings.

Kanu adduced evidence such as multiple human rights reports, and referenced Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and Nigerian rights group, the Intersociety.

“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. 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,” he added.

He accused the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai of perpetrating these attacks, by ordering soldiers to shoot at defenseless and unarmed people.

“In 2021, President Buhari appointed Buratai Ambassador to Benin, granting him diplomatic immunity to evade ICC prosecution,” and further described it “state-sponsored impunity on a genocidal scale.”

Kanu also expressed his personal tribulation since 2015, stressing that he has survived four assassination attempts and was “forcibly abducted from Kenya in an extraordinary rendition operation” on June 20, 2021, an act a Kenyan High Court later ruled illegal.

He also informed Trump that the Nigerian Court of Appeal had discharged and acquitted him in October 2022, but that “the government defied its own judiciary, refusing to release me as ordered.”

“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 said, adding that his imprisonment had been declared “arbitrary, unlawful, politically motivated” quoting the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

He condemned his protracted detention as violation of a valid court order even as he described it his “a state capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice” and 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.”

He also called for “emergency Congressional hearings on the Igbo Christian genocide” and the imposition of Magnitsky Act sanctions on top Nigerian officials, including former Army Chief Buratai and former DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi.

He further appealed for 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.”

Kanu, who said that he remains committed to non-violence and faith, noted that he and his group seek only justice, truth, and freedom, even from a prison cell.

“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,” he added.