Lagos, Nigeria

The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria urged US President Donald Trump to initiate an investigation into the “killings of Christians and Igbo people” in the southeast region.

Nnamdi Kanu, in a letter dated Nov. 6 and transmitted through his lawyer to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, appealed to Trump to act on his statement that the US was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”

“You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat. I write to you now to reveal that this challenge affects the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians continue to suffer hardship,” he wrote in the letter that was seen by Anadolu.

Kanu wants “a U.S.-led independent inquiry into the situation of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”

IPOB is seeking to establish a separate state of Biafra for the Igbo people in the southeast.

The group was founded in 2012 by Kanu, who has spoken at gatherings threatening Nigerian authorities. He referred to Nigeria as a zoo, urging loyalists to take up arms against the state.

“We need guns and we need bullets. It’s either Biafra or death,” he said in a 2017 interview.

Kanu is standing trial for treasonable felony, unlawful possession of arms, and illegal importation of broadcast equipment at a Federal High Court in Abuja, but his group has continued to enforce a sit-at-home every Monday to protest his incarceration.

The Nigerian Government has maintained that there's no Christian genocide in Nigeria.

Nigerian security is threatened by a mix of terror groups, including Boko Haram and ISWAP, as well as armed gangs, ethnic militias like IPOB, and herder-farmer conflicts often rooted in economic and social tensions.

According to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), there have been 1,923 attacks on civilian targets in Nigeria in 2025, with 50 directly linked to Christian identity.

ACLED noted that insurgent groups often frame campaigns as “anti-Christian,” but the violence frequently makes no distinction and harms all communities.