MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

THE FIVE MOST DEADLY TERRORIST GROUPS
suicide bombings in the middle of 2015 in Chad’s capital,
N'Djamena, killed at least 53 people.
BOKO HARAM
INCIDENTS 453
DEATHS 6,644
INJURIES 1,742
LOCATION OF ATTACKS
CAMEROON,
CHAD & NIGERIA
Boko Haram was the deadliest terrorist group in 2014,
killing 6,644 people. The group is also known as Jamā'at
Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād and more recently
Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP). The name
Boko Haram can be translated as ‘Western education is
forbidden.’ Following a dispute with Nigerian
government authorities and the death of their leader
Mohamad Yusuf in 2009, the group began engaging in a
campaign of violence. The new leader, Abubakar
Shekau, declared jihad against the Nigerian Government
and the United States in 2010.
Boko Haram seeks to establish an Islamic state in
Nigeria, a country which is divided between the
Christian south and the Muslim north. Sharia is fully
implemented in nine and partially implemented in three
of the 36 states of Nigeria, all of which are in northern
Nigeria. Boko Haram has interacted heavily with al-
Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and more recently
ISIL in military training, funding channels and social
media. In March 2015, the group formally pledged
allegiance (bayat) to ISIL and recognised the leader of
ISIL, al- Baghdadi, as the Caliph of Muslims.
In 2014 Boko Haram doubled its attacks and more than
quadrupled the number of deaths from terrorism. Boko
Haram also has logistic routes running through the
border regions of Cameroon and Chad. When they
attacked these countries in 2014 it was the first time that
they committed an attack outside of Nigeria. Boko
Haram killed 520 people in 46 attacks in Cameroon and
six people in one attack in Chad. However, attacks in
bordering countries have increased in 2015. A series of
Private citizens, who make up 77 per cent of fatalities, are
overwhelmingly the target of Boko Haram’s attacks.
These attacks are also extremely deadly, with an average
of 17 people killed per attack. Boko Haram has increased
the use and lethality of bombings and explosions, largely
due to the increased training from other terrorist groups. 7
In 2014, bombing increased three-fold to 107, up from 35
in 2013. However, deaths increased 14 times, from 107
people to 1,490. Many bombings target markets or
public places, such as in January 2015 when a bomb
attached to a ten year old girl exploded and killed at
least 20 people at the Monday Markets in Maiduguri.
Nevertheless, most of the attacks by Boko Haram are
armed assaults using machine guns. These attacks were
responsible for 63 per cent of deaths in 2014 with an
average of 19 deaths per attack. Machine guns were also
the main weaponry used in the Baga massacre, which
may be the deadliest terrorist attack since September 11.
Between 3 January and 7 January 2015, Boko Haram
killed an estimated 2,000 people in the town of Baga in
the state of Borno in north-east Nigeria.
ISIL
INCIDENTS 1,071
DEATHS 6,073
INJURIES 5,799
LOCATION OF ATTACKS
EGYPT, IRAQ,
LEBANON, SYRIA
& TURKEY
ISIL, also known as ISIS, Islamic State or Daesh, is a
terrorist group based in Syria and Iraq. It emerged from
al-Qa’ida in Iraq, moving into Syria during the Syrian civil
war. In February 2014 al-Qa’ida formally broke ties with
ISIL, with the leader of al-Qa’ida stating ISIL disobeyed
directions from al-Qa’ida to kill fewer civilians. Like other
fundamentalist jihadi groups, ISIL seeks to create an
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Trends
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