Nigeria's secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra has declared support for US President-elect, Donald Trump. The group on Wednesday announced its intention to hold a rally in Nigeria in support of Trump on his inauguration day as US President.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which wants the independence of Biafra in the eastern region of Nigeria, said in a statement that it was inviting people to a pro-Trump rally in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.
The group says it welcomes "civil and pragmatic democracy anywhere we find it". The Biafra region unsuccessfully fought for independence in a brutal three-year civil war that ended in 1970.
IPOB has renamed its push for secession "Biafrexit", after the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union. IPOB is part of a wider secessionist movement that advocates an independent state of Biafra, a region in southeast Nigeria that unsuccessfully fought for independence in a brutal three-year civil war that ended in 1970.
Early on in the US presidential race, IPOB threw its support behind Trump in the belief he would recognise their independence movement.
Prince Emmanuel Kanu, the brother of the detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, who has been held by the Nigerian government since October 2015 on treason charges, said of Trump: “He supports the right to self-determination.”
Separatist sentiment has grown in the months since Kanu’s arrest and sparked bloody clashes with security forces that have since been condemned by human rights groups.
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