Terrorist group Boko Haram has overtaken jihadist Islamic State (IS) as the world’s most deadly terrorist organisation, according to the 2015 edition of the Global Terrorism Index.
The Nigerian-based terror group, also known as Islamic State’s West’s Africa province (ISWAP), was responsible for 6,644 deaths in 2014. In comparison, IS is believed to have killed 6,073 people in the same period.
Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the group, also known as Dae’sh in Arabic acronym, in March of this year.
However, this tally doesn’t include the trifecta attacks that IS had claimed responsibility for in late October and November this year alone-- The Russian plane that was downed by a bomb at Sinai peninsula in Egypt where 229 people lost their lives, The Beirut suburb bombing that claimed 43 lives and the Paris raid that killed more than 130 people. On October 10, another massive blast rocked the Turkish capital, which took away more than 100 souls.
Boko Haram carries out most of its atrocities in north Africa. Over the past year, Nigeria witnessed a 300% rise in fatalities from terror acts to 7,512, as per the report. This is the largest increase in terrorist-caused deaths ever recorded by any country, and is predominantly down to Boko Haram’s expansion.
Boko Haram is not limited to Nigeria: in 2014 the group doubled its attack and expanded into Chad and Cameroon, in 2014 staging 46 attacks and claiming 520 lives.
While increased use of explosives and bombs – thanks to training from other terrorist outfits – has characterised more recent Boko Haram attacks, the majority of attacks remain armed assaults using automatic or semi-automatic weapons.
Islamic State has certainly sought - and achieved - global notoriety since it announced its creation of a caliphate across Syria and Iraq in June 2014. It has its own media arm which pumps out propaganda videos and messages to either inspire supporters or strike fear into those it regards as enemies with graphic footage glorifying executions and torture.
The data, published in the third edition of the Global Terrorism Index, was produced by the Institute for Economic and Peace, and drawn from data collected by the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
The 2015 Global Terrorism Index highlights that terrorism continues to rise. The total number of deaths from terrorism in 2014 reached 32,685, constituting an 80% increase from 18,111 the previous year.
This is the highest level ever recorded. The significant majority of these deaths, over 78%, took place in just five countries; Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.
While terrorism is highly concentrated in a small number of countries, the number of countries which have had a terrorist attack is also increasing. In 2014 terrorism impacted more countries than ever before. Attacks were recorded in 93 countries, up from 88 in 2013. This continues the trend from 2011 with more countries experiencing terrorist attacks and deaths each year.
