Attacks and killings linked to the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other pro-Biafra groups in Nigeria's South-east declined significantly in 2025, about one year after a controversial Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, was jailed in Finland, checks by PREMIUM TIMES revealed. This newspaper comparatively analysed the attacks as well as killings that happened in 2024 and 2025 across the five states in the South-east to determine the decline of the attacks and killings. The decline after Mr Ekpa's arrest and imprisonment in Finland shows that the Biafra agitator may have contributed to the attacks in the region.
Arrest and Imprisonment of Simon Ekpa
Mr Ekpa, who founded a faction of IPOB called Auto Pilot, was in September 2025 sentenced to six years' imprisonment in Finland after a court found him guilty of terrorism-related charges. The court ruled that Mr Ekpa, a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, had participated in a terrorist organisation and had publicly incited crimes for terrorist purposes in Nigeria's South-east. It further held that the Biafra agitator had supplied terror groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition through his network of contacts in the South-east, and that he was also found to have encouraged his followers on his X handle to commit crimes in Nigeria. The court also ruled that Mr Ekpa committed the offences from Lahti, a city in Finland where he stayed, and argued that this implied the court had jurisdiction in the case.
Deadly attacks and Simon Ekpa's role: Connecting the dots
Founded by Nnamdi Kanu in 2012, IPOB is a group leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria. The separatist group has been linked to some deadly attacks in the two regions, although it has repeatedly denied its involvement. Hours after Mr Ekpa's arrest, the main IPOB faction loyal to Mr Kanu disowned Mr Ekpa, explaining that the pro-Biafra agitator was never a member of the group. Prior to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment, Mr Ekpa repeatedly claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks in Nigeria's South-east. He also called for the enforcement of the illegal sit-at-home directive on Mondays in the region, initially imposed by the Mr Kanu-led IPOB in August 2021, but later suspended following public outcry.
Impact of the sit-at-home directive
During such sit-at-home days, roads and streets were deserted while shops and businesses remained shut across markets in the South-east. Many banks and petrol stations did not open for business. Even schools were forced to shut. Gunmen, linked to the Mr Ekpa-led group, who often enforced the illegal directive, killed many residents and punished others for flouting the directive. IPOB repeatedly distanced itself from the continued enforcement, insisting that those behind it were criminals exploiting the group's name. In July 2023, Mr Kanu, through his then-lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, directed Mr Ekpa to halt the sit-at-home curfew. However, Mr Ekpa dismissed the directive as fake, insisting that he would continue to enforce it unless Mr Kanu personally addressed him in Finland. The illegal sit-at-home curfew has significantly disappeared in the South-east since Mr Ekpa's imprisonment, even before Mr Kanu-led IPOB and Mr Ekpa-led armed group separately announced the 'total cancellation' in February 2026.
Methodology
PREMIUM TIMES carefully searched for and counted all attacks and abductions reported in Nigerian newspapers and news websites, as well as on the news channels of popular television stations, from 1 January to 21 November 2024, and then from 1 January to 21 November 2025. Each period totalled 11 months. While 1 January to 21 November 2024 represented the period before Mr Ekpa's arrest, 1 January to 21 November 2025 represented the period after. The findings showed that the attacks declined by 50 per cent. To do this, this newspaper developed a code sheet in which the attacks and abductions were recorded within the periods. The attacks and abductions were searched online and recorded on the code sheet. Some of the keywords used in searching for the attacks and abductions included gunmen, attack, IPOB, 2024, 2025, invade, kill, abduct, kidnap, and hoodlums.
How attacks, abductions declined in 2025
PREMIUM TIMES' findings showed that attacks and killings in the South-east in 2025 declined by 50 per cent compared to those recorded in 2024. From 1 January to 21 November 2024, there were a total of 100 attacks in the South-east, including abduction. A total of 206 people were killed during the attacks, while 66 people were abducted during the period. For the period from 1 January to 21 November 2025, a total of 50 attacks were reported in the South-east, including abductions. During the attacks within the period, a total of 162 people were killed, while 59 others were abducted. Most of the people killed during the attacks within the periods were security operatives, especially police officers and soldiers.
Attacks and killings in each of the states
In 2024, Anambra recorded the highest number of attacks in the South-east. The state recorded 30 attacks, while 48 people lost their lives in the attacks across the 21 local government areas of the state. A total of 25 people were abducted in the state during the period. Within the same period, Imo and Ebonyi states recorded the same number of attacks and number of abducted victims – each state recording 22 attacks, 64 lives lost and 10 people abducted. Enugu State came third with 18 attacks, with 17 people killed and 20 others abducted. Abia was the least attacked state in the South-east during the 2024 period. The state recorded only eight attacks, with 13 people killed. Only one person was abducted in the state during the period.
In 2025, the attacks and killings reduced significantly across the South-east. In Anambra, for instance, the attacks declined by 40 per cent, from 30 in 2024 to 18 in 2025. Even the number of slain victims in the state dropped by 43.7 per cent from 64 in 2024 to 36 in 2025. The number of abducted victims also dropped to eight, representing a 68 per cent decline. Like Anambra, Imo also recorded 18 attacks in 2025, an 18.1 per cent decline from the 22 attacks recorded the previous year. But the state recorded the highest number of killings in 2025 with 92 lives lost within the period, a 69.5 per cent increase from 64 recorded the previous year. However, the number of abducted victims dropped by 50 per cent from 10 in 2024 to five in 2025. In Enugu, only six attacks were recorded in 2025, a 66.6 per cent drop from 18 attacks in 2024. Five people were killed while 45 others were abducted in the state in 2025. The five killings in 2025 represented a 70 per cent drop from 17 people killed in 2024, while 45 people were abducted in 2025, indicating a 55.5 per cent increase from 20 people who were abducted in 2024. Ebonyi State recorded five attacks in 2025, a 77.2 per cent drop from the 22 attacks recorded in 2024. Still in Ebonyi, 19 people lost their lives in the attacks in 2025. This represented 70.3 drop from 64 people reported killed in the previous year in the state. While a total of 10 people were reported abducted in 2024 in Ebonyi, there was no report of abduction in the state in 2025. Like Ebonyi, Abia State recorded five attacks in 2025, a 62.5 per cent drop from eight attacks recorded in the state in 2024. Compared to 13 people killed in 2024, 10 people were reported killed in Abia in 2025, representing a 76.9 per cent decrease. Like in 2024, only one person was reported abducted in 2025 in the state.
Herders' attacks, cult and communal clashes
PREMIUM TIMES observed that while the majority of the attacks were linked to IPOB fighters and pro-Biafra gunmen, some of the killings and abductions in the South-east were attributed to herders, cult-related and communal clashes. Of the 100 attacks in 2024, for instance, two were communal clashes. They occurred in May 2024 in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, which resulted in the killing of 12 people. Also, three of the attacks were carried out by suspected herders in April and November 2024 in Uzo-Uwani and Isi-Uzo local government areas of the state, respectively, which resulted in the killing of eight people in the three attacks. Only two of the attacks in Anambra were linked to cult clashes, indicating that at least 93 per cent of the attacks were linked to pro-Biafra gunmen. Similarly, of the total 50 attacks in 2025, two between January and May of that year were linked to herders, which resulted in the killing of one person and the abductions of 43 people in Igbo-Eze North and Uzo-Uwani local government areas of Enugu State. Another two of the attacks between June and September 2025 were cult-related, resulting in the killing of eight people and abduction of one person in Orumba North and Idemili North local government areas of Anambra. This means that 46 of the attacks were linked to pro-Biafra gunmen, while four of the attacks were related to herders and cult clashes.
Human, financial costs of the IPOB-linked violence
A total of 776 people were killed and over N7.6 trillion lost from 2021 to 2025 in the region during the illegal sit-at-home enforced by a faction of IPOB, SBM Intelligence said in a report released in May 2025. Titled 'Four Years of Disruption', the report chronicled how the sit-at-home initially intended to demand the release of IPOB leader, Mr Kanu, evolved into a prolonged economic and humanitarian crisis characterised by violence, fear, and collapsed livelihoods. A similar report, released by Amnesty International in August last year, said the IPOB-linked violence in the South-east has allowed state and non-state actors to commit widespread human rights violations, as well as the killing of at least 1,844 people between January 2021 and June 2023.
What the decline means for South-east
Patrick Agbambu, a security analyst and president of Africa Security Watch Initiative, told PREMIUM TIMES that the decline in the deadly attacks in the South-east was expected given Mr Ekpa's 'nefarious activities' before his arrest and imprisonment. He argued that it is unlikely that the imprisoned Biafran agitator would return to terrorist activities after his jail term in Finland. He, however, stressed that South-east leaders must 'sincerely' unite now and take advantage of the new peace in the region to 'conscientize' youths against terrorism and criminality. 'This period that Ekpa is not around, they should try to work on the psyche of youths who had been following him so that if he comes back and wants to continue his activities, he will not find those foot soldiers to carry out his orders again,' he said. The security analyst warned that if South-east leaders fail to 'conscientize' their followers against terrorism at this time, they could be willing tools to Mr Ekpa when he returns from jail.
Kabiru Adamu, founder and managing director of Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, said the decline and return to peace in the South-east is an opportunity for government at all levels to further development in the region, considering the impact of the secessionist-induced violence on livelihoods in the area. 'This reduction or de-escalation is a positive development. It will now allow livelihoods to pick up where they were left; it will allow the government to focus its attention on development and not necessarily on security,' he said. Mr Adamu, however, argued that it is likely that Mr Ekpa or any other separatist leader will continue the violence in the South-east in the near future because the root causes of the secessionist agitation have not been addressed. 'The root causes of secessionist activities—the perception and reality of marginalisation that an average South-easterner feels—are still present. Unless those root causes are addressed to the point where using them as a basis for recruitment and agitation is no longer tenable, the possibility of either Simon Ekpa or other separatist commanders emerging will remain,' he said.
