May 2022 Anambra State killings

In May 2022, a series of attacks in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria, left 14 civilians dead. The killings occurred amid an ongoing separatist insurgency in the region that began developing in January 2021, largely supported by local Igbo people. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the most prominent separatist group, has publicly stated it seeks Biafran independence through non-violent means, but maintains an armed wing known as the Eastern Security Network and has been blamed for numerous attacks in the region, including enforcement of pro-Biafra protest sit-ins through violence and intimidation.

The violence began with the abduction of Okechukwu Okoye, a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, along with an aide, on 15 May 2022. Okoye's head was discovered in a park in Nnewi South on 21 May; the rest of his body and his aide's corpse were recovered later.

On 22 May 2022, militants reportedly carried out two separate mass killings. In the first, a Biafran separatist group ambushed Harira Jibril, an ethnic Hausa woman born in Adamawa State who resided in Orumba South, and her family at Isulo, Orumba North. Jibril, who was pregnant, and her four children, aged two to nine, were killed while returning from visiting relatives via motorcycle taxi; their driver escaped. Photographs and video of the family's bodies were later circulated on Twitter, with the killings attributed to Jibril's northern origin.

On the same day, five commercial motorcycle riders were killed in Onocha, possibly for refusing to comply with an IPOB order for civilians to remain at home; one victim's body was burned by the attackers. A roadside salesman was also killed at Nnanka. The motorcyclists and the salesman were reported to be of northern Nigerian origin.

Local police attributed the attacks to IPOB, which denied responsibility for the killings.

In the aftermath, many individuals of northern origin, predominantly Hausa, reportedly left their homes or closed their businesses in Anambra State. Alhaji Usman Abdullahi, the Hausa emir of Ihiala in Anambra, went into exile. The deaths of Harira Jibril and her family drew significant outrage among northern Nigerians on social media. Anambra State Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo announced a 10 million naira ($24,000) reward for information leading to the identification of Okechukwu Okoye's killers and pledged that those responsible for the killing of Jibril's family would be captured. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks as "wild, barbarous and wanton."

No individuals have been publicly named as charged or convicted in connection with these killings based on available reporting.