Nigeria has been ranked sixth in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, with a score of 7.658, marking a slight improvement from its previous eighth-place ranking in 2023 and 2024.
The 2025 report, released on March 5, 2025, lists Burkina Faso at the top of the index with a score of 8.581, followed by Pakistan (8.374), Syria (8.006), Mali (7.907), and Niger (7.776), occupying the second to fifth spots, respectively. Other countries such as Somalia, Israel, Afghanistan, and Cameroon also ranked within the top 16 most affected by terrorism.
In Nigeria, the report recorded 565 deaths related to terrorism in 2024, showing an increase in fatalities from the previous year. This rise in deaths marks a concerning upward trend over the last two years, with a 34% increase in 2023 (533 deaths) compared to 2022 and a further 6% rise in 2024.
The report highlighted the decline in global terrorism-related deaths since 2015 but noted that terrorism remains a persistent global challenge. Deaths from terrorism globally have decreased by almost a third, with Iraq and Nigeria showing the most significant decreases. However, fatalities in Nigeria have risen in recent years, following a low of 392 in 2022, after peaking at 2,101 in 2014.
The report also discussed the expansion of IS-Sahel’s activities in the region, particularly in the tri-border area of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, which has now spread to Algeria, Benin, and Nigeria. In 2024, the group carried out 16 attacks in Nigeria, with additional attacks in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
The Global Terrorism Index also reported that the number of countries affected by at least one terrorist attack rose from 58 to 66, the highest since 2018. It emphasized that terrorism continues to shift and evolve, with more countries experiencing worsening security conditions. In 2024, 45 countries saw an increase in terrorism-related impacts, while only 34 reported improvements, the first time in seven years that more countries experienced deterioration than improvement.
The Sahel region has emerged as the epicenter of global terrorism, accounting for 51% of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024. While fatalities in Burkina Faso and other Sahel countries showed some decline, the region’s overall impact remains high, with 3,885 terrorism-related deaths in 2024 alone.
The report also pointed to the fragility of counterterrorism efforts, citing Niger’s significant increase in terrorism-related deaths, which surged by 94% in 2024 to 930 fatalities. This dramatic rise in violence reverses the gains made in 2022, suggesting that progress in some countries may be temporary.
