Nigerian separatist leader resurfaces in Israel

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Missing Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has resurfaced in Israel after disappearing from the public eye in September last year.

"I am in Israel," Kanu said in a broadcast through the Radio Biafra.

There has been fevered speculation that Kanu was in Israel after a video live-streamed on Friday via the Facebook accounts of his known associates appeared to show him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Kanu, who heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra, is facing treason charges in his homeland.

He had been on bail at the time troops were deployed to his home city of Umuahia in Abia state, southeast Nigeria, in September 2017.

Kanu failed to show at his trial from that time.

In Friday's video, Kanu said, "I owe my survival to the State of Israel," without specifying the details of the support from Israeli authorities.

He said he will come back soon and called on his supporters to boycott the upcoming elections in Nigeria.

There are questions about how Kanu traveled to Israel because he surrendered his Nigerian and British passports after his arrest.

Kanu's younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, said the footage was of his brother and he had spoken to him directly, adding that his brother is fine.

Kanu believes the Igbo people, who are the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and he is tasked with leading them to the promised land of Biafra.

Nigeria imposes curfew in Kaduna after violence

Nigerian authorities declared a 24-hour curfew in northern Kaduna and deployed special police forces to the city on Sunday after communal violence which killed dozens of people.

The clashes between Muslim and Christian communities broke out last Thursday in southern Kaduna, killing at least 55 people.

"The federal government and its law enforcement agencies will work with the state government and community leaders to ensure the full restoration of peace and security," President Muhammadu Buhari said.

(With inputs from agencies)

(Cover photo: File photo of Nnamdi Kanu. /VCG Photo)