Some pro-Igbo groups in the diaspora, including the American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID), Rising Sun Charities Organization, and Ambassadors for Self-Determination, have petitioned former US President Donald Trump about the detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The groups, in a petition dated August 28, 2025, issued through Kanu’s international lawyer, Bruce Fein, requested that the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10102(c)) and Executive Order 13818 be applied to Kanu’s case, according to Vanguard.
The appeal cited several judicial judgments, including those from Nigerian and Kenyan courts, as well as a 2022 United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention opinion urging Kanu’s unconditional release.
According to the petitioners, Kanu’s continuing detention despite several verdicts poses major human rights issues. They contended that international conventions protect the rights to a fair trial, association, and peaceful self-determination.
The groups recounted Kanu’s ordeals since 2015, including the proscription of IPOB and his 2021 relocation from Kenya to Nigeria, which has been a source of international concern.
They encouraged the US administration to accept their appeal, citing previous occasions in which the US intervened against human rights violations in other nations.
The petitioners also stated that, notwithstanding the devastation of the Biafran War, cries for self-determination continue owing to unsolved grievances, and they hoped that international engagement would assist secure fairness and justice in Kanu’s case.
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