Nigeria has been positioned sixth in the 2025 Global Terrorism Assessment with a metric of 7.658, ascending from eighth position in 2023 and 2024.
According to the 2025 evaluation published on March 5, 2025, Burkina Faso led the assessment with a metric of 8.581, succeeded by Pakistan (8.374), Syria (8.006), Mali (7.907), and Niger (7.776), which occupied second to fifth positions, respectively.
Somalia (7.614), Israel (7.463), Afghanistan (7.262), Cameroon (6.944), Myanmar (6.929), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.768), Iraq (6.582), India (6.410), Colombia (6.381), and Russia (6.267) occupied seventh to sixteenth.
The evaluation documented 565 terrorism-linked casualties in Nigeria in 2024, underscoring an uptick in fatalities over the past two years.
“Worldwide, casualties from terrorism have diminished by almost a third since the zenith in 2015, with Iraq and Nigeria documenting the most substantial decreases. Casualties in Nigeria peaked at 2,101 in 2014, before declining to 392 in 2022, the lowest figure since 2011. Nevertheless, fatalities escalated by 34 percent in 2023 to 533, and further to 565 in 2024.”
The evaluation also highlighted that IS-Sahel, predominantly operational in the Liptako-Gourma territory—the tri-border zone of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—has broadened its operations to Algeria, Benin, and Nigeria. In 2024, the organization executed 16 attacks in Nigeria, 12 in Niger, six in Mali, and one in Burkina Faso.
Additionally, the tally of nations impacted by at least one terrorist incident increased from 58 to 66, the highest figure since 2018.
“Terrorism persists as an enduring global menace, with 2024 marking another cycle of shifting dynamics and evolving challenges. More nations experienced a deterioration in security, with 45 reporting an intensified impact from terrorism, while only 34 witnessed improvements—the first instance in seven years that more countries worsened than improved.”
The Sahel territory has emerged as the global epicenter of terrorism, representing 51 percent of all terrorism-related casualties in 2024, a nearly tenfold increase since 2019. Overall, conflict-linked casualties in the region exceeded 25,000 for the first time since the inception of the assessment, with 3,885 deaths attributed to terrorism.
