southeast and declared the independent Republic of Biafra. That marked the start of Nigeria’s bloody civil war, which ended in 1970 after Nigeria blockaded Biafra’s border and hundreds of thousands of people starved to death. The Biafran troops surrendered.
Nearly half a century later, many of the same rivalries and fears of persecution that set off the war still linger. After Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 after decades of rule by military juntas—excluding one four-year stretch that began in 1979—the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra was founded with the aim of restoring the state of Biafra.
But the IPOB, established 10 years later, has since become the premier pro-Biafra movement; it claims to have some 20 million members and 95 branches across the world. It has even opened its first Biafran embassy in northern Spain’s Basque country, chosen because of the region’s historic struggle for independence.
Kanu, who was elected IPOB leader in September 2015, has been hailed as the restorer of the Biafran nation. “Nnamdi Kanu is ordained to take us to the Biafran promised land,” says Asiegbu. “He is the chosen one.” Kanu’s critics say that the secessionist leader is a promoter of hate speech and propaganda.
At an event in May 2014 to commemorate the 1967 declaration of the
