Nigeria has been ranked sixth in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) with a score of 7.658, marking a sharp increase from its eighth-place ranking in the past two years. This unsettling development underscores the nation’s ongoing struggle with violent extremism and rising insecurity.
The latest GTI report, released on Wednesday, paints a bleak picture of global terrorism trends, placing Burkina Faso at the top of the index with a score of 8.581. It is followed by Pakistan (8.374), Syria (8.006), Mali (7.907), and Niger (7.776), with Nigeria now surpassing Somalia (7.614), Israel (7.463), and Afghanistan (7.262) in terrorist activity and fatalities.
The impact of this surge in terrorism has been devastating. Nigeria recorded 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, a stark increase from 533 in 2023 and significantly higher than the 392 fatalities in 2022. These numbers signal a troubling reversal after years of progress in curbing extremist violence.
“Globally, deaths from terrorism have declined by almost a third since the peak in 2015,” the report notes. “Iraq and Nigeria recorded the largest decreases in earlier years. But while Iraq has sustained its progress, Nigeria has seen resurgence in violence, with fatalities increasing by 34 percent in 2023 and climbing further in 2024.”
One of the primary factors behind the increase in terrorist activity is the expansion of IS-Sahel, an extremist group primarily operating in the Liptako-Gourma region—the volatile tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. In 2024 alone, IS-Sahel launched 16 attacks within Nigeria, further intensifying the security crisis.
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The surge in terrorist activity is not confined to Nigeria. The report highlights that the number of countries affected by at least one terrorist attack rose from 58 to 66 in 2024, reaching the highest level since 2018. This trend underscores a shifting and increasingly unpredictable global threat landscape.
The Sahel region has emerged as the epicenter of global terrorism, accounting for 51 percent of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide in 2024—nearly ten times the number recorded in 2019. The region saw conflict-related deaths surpass 25,000 for the first time since the index began, with 3,885 of these fatalities directly linked to terrorism.
While Burkina Faso remains the most impacted nation, recent trends indicate a shift in dynamics. The country experienced a 21 percent drop in terrorism-related deaths and a 57 percent decline in attacks in 2024. Despite this, it still accounted for one-fifth of global terrorism fatalities, maintaining its status as a primary hotspot for extremist violence.
Conversely, Niger has witnessed a drastic deterioration in security. Once lauded for its counterterrorism progress, the nation recorded the largest increase in terrorism-related deaths worldwide in 2024. Fatalities skyrocketed by 94 percent to 930, effectively erasing prior gains made in 2022 and highlighting the fragile nature of counterterrorism efforts in the region.
The sharp rise in Nigeria’s GTI ranking underscores the urgent need for renewed counterterrorism efforts and strengthened security policies. With extremist threats evolving, the Nigerian government and international partners must bolster intelligence-sharing, community engagement, and military operations to combat the growing menace.
As global terrorism trends continue to shift, Nigeria’s ability to curb violent extremism will be critical in determining both its national security and its position in future iterations of the Global Terrorism Index.