Nigeria 6th in Global Terrorism Index despite lowest attacks in decade
Nigeria recorded the lowest terrorism attacks in the last 10 years, the 2024 Global Terrorism Index has indicated.
The GTI is a comprehensive study analysing the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, approximately 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.
The index is compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) using data from Terrorism Tracker and other sources. It produces a composite score to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
The GTI scores each country on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 represents no impact from terrorism and 10 represents the highest measurable impact of terrorism.
| Year | Incidents | Deaths | Injured |
| 2024 | 99 | 565 | 177 |
| 2023 | 145 | 524 | 89 |
| 2022 | 120 | 385 | 147 |
| 2021 | 204 | 448 | 161 |
| 2020 | – | – | – |
| 2019 | 411 | 1245 | 419 |
| 2018 | 562 | 2040 | 772 |
| 2017 | 411 | 1532 | 852 |
| 2016 | 466 | 1832 | 919 |
| 2015 | 588 | 4940 | 2786 |
| 2014 | 662 | 7512 | 2246 |
Figures for Nigeria in the Global Terrorism Index, 2014 – 2024 reports. Source: GTI.
According to its latest ranking released on March 5, 2025, Nigeria recorded 99 terrorism incidents in 2024, which is lower than the 145 incidents recorded in 2023. This is the lowest number of terror attacks recorded since 2014, according to previous Global Terrorism Index reports of the last 10 years.
However, the number of deaths as a result of terrorism was 565, which is higher than the 524 and 385 recorded in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
In spite of this, Nigeria rose to 6th in the global ranking in 2024 from the eighth place it was in 2023 and 2022.
The report shows that while attacks in Nigeria decreased by 37 per cent, deaths from terrorism continue to rise, increasing by six per cent to 565 in 2024, and thus marking the highest death toll since 2020 due to ongoing conflict between Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram.
Together, fatalities attributed to these groups accounted for nearly 60 percent of all terrorism-related deaths in the country.
Five terror attacks that occurred in Nigeria in 2024 were also ranked among the world’s 50 most devastating.
The attacks, which took place in Yobe and Borno states, were carried out by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province and ranked 7th, 9th, 24th, 30th, and 33rd on the global list in the report.
According to the report, the deadliest of the Nigerian attacks occurred on September 1, 2024, in Yobe State, when 100 people were killed in an armed assault by Boko Haram.
The attack was ranked the seventh-worst terrorist incident globally in 2024.
Another major attack took place on April 24, 2024, in Borno State, where 85 people lost their lives in an ISWAP-led armed attack. The attack was ranked ninth globally.
Other attacks in Nigeria listed in the report include an ISWAP attack on September 1, 2024, in Yobe, which resulted in 37 deaths and was ranked 24th; a jihadist attack in Borno on May 26, 2024, that claimed 30 lives and was ranked 30th; and a bombing by an unidentified jihadist group on June 29, 2024, in Borno, which also killed 30 people and was ranked 33rd among the world’s 50 most devastating incidents.
