Nigeria has moved up to sixth place in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index with a score of 7.658, surpassing its eighth-place ranking in 2023 and 2024. According to the report released on March 5, 2025, Burkina Faso topped the index with a score of 8.581, followed by Pakistan (8.374), Syria (8.006), Mali (7.907), and Niger (7.776), which rounded out the top five.
The report highlighted that Nigeria recorded 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, showing a rise in fatalities over the past two years. The country’s terrorism-related deaths peaked at 2,101 in 2014 but saw a significant decline in the following years, dropping to 392 in 2022. However, the number of fatalities rose by 34 percent in 2023 to 533 and continued to increase in 2024.
IS-Sahel, a terror group primarily active in the Liptako-Gourma region (spanning Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger), expanded its operations to Algeria, Benin, and Nigeria. In 2024, the group carried out 16 attacks in Nigeria, marking a continued escalation of violence. The number of countries affected by terrorism also rose from 58 to 66, marking the highest number since 2018.
The report pointed to the Sahel region as the global epicenter of terrorism, responsible for 51 percent of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024—a near tenfold increase since 2019. This region’s conflict-related deaths surpassed 25,000 for the first time, with 3,885 attributed to terrorism. While Burkina Faso still recorded the most deaths, there was a decline in both deaths and attacks in 2024.
Niger, however, experienced the largest increase in terrorism-related fatalities, rising by 94 percent to 930 deaths, reversing the progress made in previous years. The overall report emphasizes the fragility of counterterrorism efforts and the shifting patterns in global security, with more nations reporting worsened conditions than improvements.
