MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

convoy with members of the British embassy in Kabul
which led to six deaths.
TALIBAN
INCIDENTS 891
DEATHS 3,477
INJURIES 3,310
LOCATION OF ATTACKS
AFGHANISTAN,
PAKISTAN
All but one attack by the Taliban was committed in
Afghanistan. Forty-eight per cent of attacks were
through bombings which killed an average of three
people per attack. Whilst only 12 per cent of attacks
were suicide bombings, they accounted for 19 per cent
of fatalities with an average of 6.4 deaths per attack.
Armed assaults were 23 per cent of attacks and 35 per
cent of deaths. Most armed assaults were against the
police, with the Taliban targeting checkpoints and
police posts.
Founded in 1994 by Mohamad Omar, the group was
originally constituted by a mixture of Mujahedeen,
who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in the 1980s, and a group of Pashtun tribesmen. The
Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled
until 2001, when they were overthrown by the US-led
invasion of Afghanistan. They have since regrouped as
an insurgency movement to fight the now former
Karsai administration and the NATO-led International
Security Forces (ISAF). Now known as the ‘Neo-Taliban’
or the Quetta Shura Taliban due to the current location
of their leadership, the organisation has rebranded
itself as an independence movement in an attempt to
gain support as it attempts to recapture and take
control of Afghanistan.
In 2014 the Taliban killed the most people from
terrorism since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002.
There were 3,477 people killed from 891 attacks, which
is a 38 per cent increase in fatalities and 48 per cent
increase in attacks from the previous year. The Taliban
are seeking to destabilise the country through
undermining the institutions of government. For this
reason the police were the major target of the Taliban,
accounting for 45 per cent of incidents and 53 per cent
of deaths. On average there are 4.6 deaths per incident
from attacks targeting the police. The second biggest
target was private civilians who were targets for around
20 per cent of both incidents and deaths, with an
average of 4.3 deaths per attack. The government was
also a major target, with the Taliban targeting convoys
with government officials. This includes domestic
officials, such as the attack on 22 January 2014 against
the Shindand governor's convoy in Shindand district
which led to five deaths. Another attack on 27
November 2014 involved a suicide bomber attacking a
FULANI MILITANTS
INCIDENTS 154
DEATHS 1,229
INJURIES 395
LOCATION
CENTRAL AFRICAN
OF ATTACKS
REPUBLIC & NIGERIA
Fulani militants in Nigeria come from a semi-nomadic,
pastoralist ethnic group and are engaged in conflict
with farming communities. The Fulani, or Fula, people
live in at least seven countries in West Africa and the
tribe comprises over 20 million people. In Nigeria,
Fulani communities have faced tension with farmer
communities over resources for many years. Seventy
per cent of Fulani’s are nomadic grazers. Groups of
Fulani militants have used mainly machine guns and
attacks on villages to assault and intimidate farmers.
Alongside the destabilised security situation in Nigeria
due to the increased activity of Boko Haram, there was a
dramatic increase in attacks by Fulani militants in 2014.
From 2010 to 2013, Fulani militants killed around 80
people in total. In 2014, Fulani militants killed 1,229.
Most of the attacks occur in just six of the 36 states of
Nigeria. Unlike deaths from Boko Haram which are
mainly in the north, the majority of deaths occur in the
Middle Belt. The five states of Benue, Kaduna,
Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba recorded 847 deaths,
which accounts for 69 per cent of the total. The state of
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Trends
43