IPOB Declares May 30 as Biafra Heroes Remembrance Day, Calls for Sit-at-Home Across Southeast

The Indigenous People of Biafra [IPOB] has declared May 30, 2026, as a day of remembrance for Biafran war casualties and called for a total sit-at-home across Biafraland.

In a statement signed by IPOB spokesperson Comrade Emma Powerful, the group described the date as a “sacred covenant with the fallen” and said it would be observed as a day of mourning, reflection, and honour for those who died during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970 and in subsequent events.

The statement said the day is meant to commemorate soldiers, civilians, scientists, and mothers who died during the conflict, as well as those killed during the May 30, 2016, remembrance observances in Nkpor and Onitsha. IPOB said those individuals were “unarmed men and women whose only offence was gathering to honour their dead and affirm their identity.”

IPOB directed residents of the 13 states of Biafraland to suspend all commercial, social, and political activities on May 30. The group said the day should be reserved for prayer, mourning, and remembrance, and urged people in the diaspora to observe it with “discipline, dignity, and reverence.”

The group also appealed to governors in the Southeast and parts of South-South Nigeria to fly the Nigerian flag at half-mast on the day “in honour of the millions who perished during the war and in the years that followed.”

IPOB, led by Nnamdi Kanu, has annually observed May 30 as Biafra Remembrance Day. The Nigerian government has previously designated IPOB as a proscribed organization, while IPOB maintains it is a non-violent self-determination movement.

May 30 marks the date in 1967 when the Republic of Biafra was declared by Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, triggering the Nigerian Civil War that lasted until January 1970.