Attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria and Isis in Syria and Iraq drive increase in deaths, with civilians increasingly targeted, Global Terrorism Index shows

A surge in activity from Nigeria’s Islamist insurgency Boko Haram – now the world’s deadliest terrorist group – and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has driven an 80% increase in the number of people killed by terrorists in 2014, this year’s Global Terrorism Index showed. In total, 32,658 people were killed in terrorist attacks in 67 countries last year, according to the index, released on Tuesday by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The world is reeling from the terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, which killed at least 129 people. But the index showed that 80% of last year’s terrorist killings were carried out in just five countries: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.

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“We can see the trauma [terrorist attacks] create in the west, but think how much trauma they create in all these other countries in the world,” said Steve Killelea, executive chairman of the IEP.

The index showed a close link between terrorism and people being forced to flee. Of 11 countries with more than 500 deaths from terrorism, 10 had “the highest levels of refugees and [internal] migration in the world”, the index said.



The sharp rise in terrorist activity noted in the report is fuelling migration out of areas controlled by Isis and into neighbouring countries. According to figures from the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, 369,904 people have fled Iraq and and 4.29 million have fled Syria.

“There’s a strong relationship between terrorism and ongoing conflict. What we’re seeing is people are fleeing the conflicts, and so actually tackling the conflicts and terrorism are one and the same,” Killelea said.



Terrorism makes meeting development targets, such as increasing access to education and improving water and sanitation, impossible, Killelea said. “After getting a solution to the conflict, then you can come back and address the underlying developmental causes. A lot of the time they’re related back to the reasons for the conflict in the first place.”

Boko Haram is now the world’s most deadly terrorist group after it claimed 6,644 killings last year, a 317% increase from 2013.



Bombings and gun attacks carried out by Isis in Syria and Iraq and Boko Haram in Nigeria caused 12,717 deaths. Taliban insurgents in Pakistan, Fulani militants in Nigeria – who attack mainly Christian farming communities in northern and central Nigeria – and al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia all killed more than 1,000 civilians last year, the index showed. Fulani militants carried out their deadliest attack in April 2014, opening fire on a community meeting in Zamfara state, killing at least 200 people, the report said.

There are about 530 terrorist groups around the world, with 33 emerging last year, Killelea said.

There were 15 terrorist attacks last year that had a higher death toll than last Friday’s suicide bombings and gun attacks in Paris, the index showed.

The deadliest attack of 2014 saw Isis storm a prison in the northern Iraqi city of Badush, killing about 670 people. In August last year the group killed about 500 people from the Yazidi sect in Sinjar, also in Iraq.



Boko Haram, an insurgency in northern Nigeria that has pledged allegiance to Isis, killed more than 300 people in Gamboru Ngala, a northern town, in May 2014.

Terrorist groups have changed strategy, and are increasingly targeting civilians, the report said. Last year, terrorists killed 172% more private citizens than the year before. “What we’re seeing is a change in tactics. Attacks on private citizens are more lethal, they create a lot more fear and mayhem in a society. This also has an economic impact,” said Killelea.

Terrorism cost the world $53bn last year in injuries, property damage and the loss of lifetime income for the people who were killed. But Killelea warned that this estimate is “very, very conservative. There’s a lot of other flow-on effects of terrorism which we’re not able to really capture.”