MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

FIGURE 10 NUMBER OF ATTACKS AND DEATHS FOR PRIVATE
CITIZENS AND PROPERTY, 2000-2014
Private citizens have borne the brunt of the increase in deaths from
terrorism. Deaths of private citizens increased 172 per cent between
2013 and 2014 compared to total deaths which rose 80 per cent.
The two most lethal
terrorist groups in 2014,
Boko Haram and ISIL,
overwhelmingly attack
private citizens.
16,000
14,000
12,000
Attacks
Deaths
NUMBER
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2,005
2006
2007
2008
2008
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
YEAR
Source: START GTD
TABLE 2
DEATHS BY TARGET TYPE BETWEEN 2013 AND 2014
TARGETS 2013 2014 DIFFERENCE
PERCENTAGE
DIFFERENCE
Private citizens
& property 5,647 15,380 9,734 172%
Other 1,921 3,496 1,576 82%
Military 1,439 2,530 1,091 76%
Police 4,536 6,124 1,589 35%
Business 1,604 1,983 379 24%
Government 1,715 2,060 345 20%
Religious 1,250 1,111 -139 -11%
In 2014 there was a 172 per cent increase in private citizens as
victims of terrorism. Over three quarters of this was due to
three groups: Boko Haram, Fulani militants and ISIL. Private
citizens constituted 38 per cent of deaths by Boko Haram in
2013, but this rose to 77 per cent in 2014.
Similarly, Fulani militants killed 992 private citizens in 2014,
up from 61 the previous year. This was 81 per cent of total
deaths from terrorism by Fulani militants.
ISIL has also increased its targeting of private citizens. ISIL
killed 2,667 private citizens in 2014 which was 255 per cent
higher than 2013. The three groups have different tactics. Boko
Haram and the Fulani militants mainly use automatic weapons
and have very high levels of fatalities per attack, whereas ISIL
mainly target private citizens using explosives and bombings.
Proportionally there was not a big change in the use of
weapons with 58 per cent of attacks by explosives, bombs and
dynamite, 28 per cent of attacks by firearms and 14 per cent of
attacks by other weapons.
In 2014 there were 854 more incidents where firearms were the
main weapon, 1,626 more uses of explosives, bombs or dynamite
and 928 cases with ‘other.’ Other involves mainly incendiary
attacks and unknown weaponry. Unknown weaponry is
predominantly kidnapping or hijacking, both of which are
activities where the weaponry is incidental to the act.
Attacks involving weaponry that fall under the category of
‘other’ increased proportionally from nine per cent in 2013 to
14 per cent in 2014. This was largely due to the increase in
kidnappings. There were at least 269 more kidnappings in 2014
than the previous year. This reflects the increasing use of
kidnappings by ISIL. In 2014 ISIL used kidnapping 677 per
cent more than in 2013, with over 100 separate kidnappings
often involving multiple people. For example, on 12 September
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Trends
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