As his terrorism trial resumes on Friday, November 7, 2025, detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written a detailed and emotionally charged letter to U.S. President Donald J. Trump, calling for urgent American and international intervention to stop what he described as an ongoing “hidden genocide against Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria.
The open letter Shared by Nnamdi Kanu brother Prince Kanu below
Your Excellency,I extend warm greetings to you in the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear. As a practicing Jew and a believer in the Judeo-Christian heritage that shaped Western civilization, I was honored to attend your campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2020.
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-has ignited hope in the hearts of millions who have been abandoned by the world.
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.
I am Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)-a peaceful, non-violent civil rights movement rooted in Judeo-Christian principles.
Since 2015, I have survived four documented assassination attempts by the Nigerian state. On 20 June 2021, I was forcibly abducted from Kenya in an extraordinary rendition operation an act that violated Kenyan and international law, as condemned by a Kenyan High Court ruling (Petition No. E282 of 2021).
Despite this ruling, I was illegally transported to Nigeria and thrown into solitary detention in Abuja, without a valid subsisting charge and for the sole crime of defending my people’s right to life, faith, and self-determination under international law.
On 13 October 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja (CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022) discharged and acquitted me of all charges, ruling that my rendition was illegal, unconstitutional and a gross violation of international law.
The court ordered my immediate and unconditional release. Yet I remain in solitary detention-over 1,596 days since my abduction. The Nigerian 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 constitutionally protected double jeopardy safeguards under Section 36(9) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 7(2) of the African Charter.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion No. 25/2022) declared my continued imprisonment “arbitrary, unlawful, and politically motivated.” This is not justice. This is state capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice.
A Hidden Genocide Against Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria
The same extremist-backed forces you have condemned 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. But here, the Nigerian military itself is the primary perpetrator, shielded by a false narrative that blames victims.
These atrocities are irrefutably documented:
- Obigbo Massacre – October 2020
Page 2 of 4 - Nkpor Biafra Heroes Day Massacre – 30 May 2016
Amnesty International (2016): “At least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed… bodies dumped in rivers.”
UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard (A/HRC/47/33/Add.2, Para. 48): “Security forces opened fire on demonstrators at St. Edmund’s Catholic Church… at least 60 killed, over 70 injured… victims shot in the back while praying.”
Intersociety (2016 field report): “True death toll exceeds 900, with mass graves discovered
near
Onitsha.” →This was not a clash. It was a massacre of worshippers commemorating their fallen. - National High School Aba Massacre – 9 February 2016
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Amnesty International: “22 killed on-site; 13 bodies exhumed from a borrow pit near Aba-Port Harcourt Road.”
UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard (A/HRC/47/33/Add.2, Para. 45): “Soldiers from the 144 Battalion fired indiscriminately into a crowd of young Christian students praying and singing hymns. No evidence of armed resistance.”
→ Children were executed for singing “Sweet Jesus.” 3. Operation Python Dance II-12-14 September 2017
Amnesty International (2025 “A Decade of Impunity”): “150+ killed in raid on Kanu’s home in Afaraukwu. No soldiers died.”
UN Callamard Report (Para. 51): “Asymmetric use of lethal force…. enforced disappearances… part of a continuum of state violence.” →I survived the third assassination attempt that day. 28 unarmed civilians did not. - Amnesty International: “At least 13 civilians killed, including children; burials: rape used -A Christian town was punished for protesting police brutality. 5. Port Harcourt (Igweocha) Trump Solidarity Rally – 20 January 2017
- IPOB eyewitness accounts & local reports: “Hundreds of Judeo- Christian supporters gunned down by soldiers under Islamist-sympathetic command.”
- They came to celebrate your inauguration. They were met with bullets.
- The architect of these crimes? Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, former Chief of Army Staff. In 2021, President Buhari appointed him Ambassador to Benin, granting him diplomatic immunity to evade ICC prosecution. This is state-sponsored impunity on a genocidal scale.
- Weaponization of Insecurity to Demonize IPOB
- Since my illegal rendition, Nigeria has:
- .Declared IPOB a “terrorist organization”despite zero evidence of violence (confirmed by U.S. State Department, 2021).
- •Orchestrated “unknown gunmen” attacksusing state-backed militias, then blamed IPOB.
- .Killed over 2,000 Igbo youths in “counter-terrorism” operations (Intersociety. 2021-2025).
- This is Rwanda’s playbook: create chaos, blame the victim, justify extermination.
- A Call to You, President Trump
- You said America will act. Now is the moment.
- I respectfully urge you 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.
- Convene emergency Congressional hearingson the Igbo Christian genocide, featuring:
The 13 October 2022 Court of Appeal judgment discharging me (disobeyed by the government)
UN Callamard’s report on Aba & Nkpor
Nigeria’s defiance of its own Constitution - Impose targeted Magnitsky Act sanctions on:
Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai (Ambassador, Benin)
Current DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi
South-East military commanders implicated in Obigbo - Support an internationally-supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people-the only peaceful path to ending this cycle of violence, as affirmed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Article 20).
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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.I remain steadfast in peace, faith, and non-violence-even from a prison cell.
IPOB rejects every form of violence. We seek only justice, truth, and freedom.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-who delivered Israel from Pharaoh-grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again.
With deepest respect and urgent hope,Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu Leader, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)Prisoner of Conscience – DSS Custody, Abuja Discharged by Court of Appeal (13 Oct 2022) Release Order Disobeyed Four-Time Survivor of State Assassination Attempts Enclosures:1. Nigeria Court of Appeal Judgment (CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022, 13 Oct 2022) – Full Text, Condemning Rendition and Barring Trial.
2. Federal High Court of Nigeria Judgment (Suit No: FHC/UM/CS/30/2022), Condemning Rendition and Detention.
3. UN Callamard Report (A/HRC/47/33/Add.2) – Excerpts on Aba & Nkpor.
4. Amnesty International: “Bullets Were Raining Everywhere” (2016).
5. Intersociety: “Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in Eastern Nigeria”.
6. UN Working Group Opinion No. 25/2022-Declaring Detention Arbitrary and Condemning Rendition. 7. Kenyan High Court Judgment (Petition No. E282 Of 2021), Condemning Rendition.
