Population Structure and Admixture Analysis of the Kanuri Ethnic Group Using Genome-Wide SNP Data

The Kanuri people of North East Nigeria, predominantly residing in Borno State, represent one of Nigeria's oldest ethnic groups with historical connections to the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Their genetic relationships with adjacent West African and North African populations remain incompletely characterised, with genome-wide data absent from the literature. This study investigated the population structure and admixture history of the Kanuri using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. Two hundred unrelated Kanuri adults from three Borno State districts were genotyped using the H3Africa SNP array. Principal component analysis, ADMIXTURE model-based clustering, and pairwise FST were used to assess population structure and differentiation. D-statistics (ABBA-BABA tests) and TreeMix analyses were employed to investigate admixture and population graph relationships with 12 reference African populations from the 1000 Genomes Project and African Genome Variation Project. Results revealed that the Kanuri carry a significant proportion of North African (Saharan) ancestry not observed in most West African populations, alongside a dominant West African ancestry component consistent with Niger-Congo language groups. These findings have implications for understanding the historical genetics of trans-Saharan migrations and provide a reference genetic dataset for the Kanuri population. Keywords: Kanuri, population genetics, admixture, SNP array, Borno State