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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Updated Terrorist Rankings Now Out…

Updated Terrorist Rankings Now Out…

by Anne Laurie|  November 19, 201510:53 pm| 35 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Fucked-up-edness

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Boko Haram: Still deadlier than ISIS, still nobody gives a shit https://t.co/P1ME28U3Rz

— Jared Keller (@jaredbkeller) November 18, 2015

Per the NYTimes, ISIS needs to try harder this year:

… Boko Haram, the militant group that has tortured Nigeria and its neighbors for years, was responsible for 6,664 deaths last year, more than any other terrorist group in the world, including the Islamic State, which killed 6,073 people in 2014, according to a report released Wednesday tracking terrorist attacks globally.

The death toll in Nigeria mounted on Wednesday, with a bombing in Kano State in northern Nigeria, not even a full day after Boko Haram was suspected in an explosion that killed and injured dozens in another nearby region…

Boko Haram has pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, but it is unclear what support the group is giving Boko Haram beyond assisting with publicity.

The report released Wednesday, from the Institute of Economics & Peace, said the Islamic State and Boko Haram were responsible for half of all global deaths attributed to terrorism.

Last year, the deaths attributed to Boko Haram alone increased by more than 300 percent, the report said.

The report found a drastic increase in terrorist attacks last year, with the majority occurring in three countries: Iraq, Syria and Nigeria, where other militant groups besides Boko Haram operate…

This is the third year the economics and peace institute has released its Global Terrorism Index, a study of terrorist activity around the world. The index is based on data collected as part of a program run by the University of Maryland dedicated to the study of terrorism around the world.

The report estimated that $117 billion was spent worldwide to fight terrorism. It said that two countries, Cameroon and Ukraine, experienced no terrorism-related deaths in 2013 but that each had more than 500 deaths from terrorism the following year.

In Ukraine, the spike in deaths came largely from militants in the region who are suspected of shooting down a Malaysia Airlines plane, killing all on board. In Cameroon, the report said Boko Haram had expanded its reach into the country with bombings.

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Previous Post: « Booo! ISIS and the Use of Terrorism as Psychological Operations
Next Post: Open Thread: The Tire Rims and Anthrax Candidate! »

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    redshirt

    November 19, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    I’d vote:

    1. NRA
    2. GOP
    3. ISIL/ALQAEDA/PLO

  2. 2.

    srv

    November 19, 2015 at 11:11 pm

    If ISIS has only done 6K in the last year, we need to find a new enemy.

    Maybe the Russians. What’s the over and under on 200 airstrikes a day?

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 19, 2015 at 11:12 pm

    This is a good understanding. The hardcore Islamic Nationalist groups: Hamas first and foremost for the Sunnis, but also the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lakshar-e-Taibi in Jammu and Kashmir, Boko Haram as the most renowned of the Fulani groups in Nigeria and the cross-border areas of Niger, and Cameroon, Hezbollah on the Shi’a side – have all been far more effective than groups like al Qaeda or ISIL. You can think of these groups as the real professionals. They have very tightly defined goals and objectives, serve as the fighting cadre/militia/defense forces for established social movements that have significant support, and have clearly defined and delineated areas in which they will primarily operate. As such they can be far more effective. Al Qaeda was always, primarily, a logistics/support network. ISIL is something different entirely.

  4. 4.

    redshirt

    November 19, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    @efgoldman: 1. NRA

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    November 19, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    Relatedly, if you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can see their (fiction) film about child soldiers in Africa, Beasts of No Nation. Idris Elba is supposed to be terrifying and amazing as the commander who turns child captives into vicious killers.

  6. 6.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 19, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Curious to know your thoughts about the Kashmir situation. India is never going to let Kashmir go and Pakistan is never going to stop meddling.

  7. 7.

    Mike J

    November 19, 2015 at 11:24 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Curious to know your thoughts about the Kashmir situation.

    Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
    I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 19, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Its a real problem without an easy resolution. Even if the people in Jammu and Kashmir didn’t have a predilection for wanting to be part of one side over the other, eventually they’d be agitating for independence to get out from under the Indian and Pakistani meddling. Like the Israeli-Palestinian dispute this is not a wicked problem because we don’t know how to engineer/design a solution. We do. What makes it a wicked problem is we can’t sell the solution to the parties to the conflict.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 19, 2015 at 11:29 pm

    @efgoldman: I’m particular to Led Zeppelin’s arrangement…

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 19, 2015 at 11:30 pm

    @efgoldman: It just shows the ability, or perhaps inability, to actually assess risk. Not to mention the ability to mentally/emotionally compartmentalize when faced with significant issues.

  11. 11.

    J R in WV

    November 19, 2015 at 11:46 pm

    Well, number and such are always important, but Boko Haram is only killing Africans, like that guy, Hussein Obama, who is killing America.

    So how does that count compared to 3 or 4 Americans in Boston?

    Right?

    /snark

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    November 19, 2015 at 11:52 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is a good understanding.

    Thanks! I was curious about your professional opinion, but didn’t want to pester you.

    @J R in WV:

    So how does that count compared to 3 or 4 Americans in Boston?

    Well, three Americans, plus a Chinese grad student. (Seeing her parents’ sorrow & confusion was a whole new heartbreak.) But the Americans included a little white boy, an adorable young blonde woman, and a (campus) cop — so lots of extra ghoul-TV points.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    November 19, 2015 at 11:53 pm

    @J R in WV: That’s it. Boko Haram sticks to killing mostly brown people, so they don’t really count.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    November 19, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    Back when was blogging regularly, included an almost daily rundown/aggregation of stories about Nigeria and another about Somalia.

    Consistently the least clicked on sections of the blog.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    November 20, 2015 at 12:05 am

    I am supposed to have a sleep-deprived EEG in the morning, so I am supposed to stay up all night. But I am so fucking tired.

    Mr. Suzanne just came into the room, jumped on me, spanked my ass, and blasted “PARTY HARD” by Andrew WK.

    Not asleep.

  16. 16.

    max

    November 20, 2015 at 12:09 am

    @J R in WV: Boko Haram is only killing Africans

    Boko Haram is a local insurgency in Nigeria who happen to be fond of terrorist tactics. They haven’t gone international, they haven’t gone cross-border, and the Nigerian state is not real interested in having a lot of foreigners running around bombing shit. Or occupying shit. (They like foreigners drilling for oil and giving them money.) Which means it’s down to the Nigerian security forces.

    If anybody has any actually great ideas about improving the Nigerian security response, I’m sure someone will be all ears.

    Just like radical Neo-Confederates intent on killing lots of African-Americans are generally the province of the American security apparatus. (Solving that doesn’t seem to go all that well, does it?) I don’t think the FBI is real keen on asking for Russian or Chinese or Nigerian assistance.

    The Kashmir situation (and actually, the Taliban situation) along with the Ukrainian situation are part of long-standing geo-political conflicts between nations (wars, another words).

    Al-Queda (or what’s left of the core) is transnational and after us in particular and Daesh invaded our (ostensible) ally, and potentially threatens several others. They have recently adopted international terror tactics, probably as an attempt to get various coalition members off their case, or at least hurt us back for hurting them.

    Our American right-wing friends are having a two-minute ethnic hate, spurred by Fox News and the like, which what we get when propaganda channels flourish.

    Not much else to say about it unless we intend to adopt the initial Bushian strategy of attempting to fight in every single country in the world.

    max
    [‘It would be probably help a lot if we quit identifying everything in the world as ‘terrorist’, particularly when it isn’t terrorism.’]

  17. 17.

    beltane

    November 20, 2015 at 12:17 am

    @max:

    Not much else to say about it unless we intend to adopt the initial Bushian strategy of attempting to fight in every single country in the world

    It’s hard to see how it would be possible for us to make every nation, group, or faction in the world behave when we can’t even make ourselves behave here at home.

  18. 18.

    Warren Terra

    November 20, 2015 at 12:19 am

    Boko Haram has destroyed more lives, but destroyed far fewer dollars. And that’s even before we get to race or nationality.

  19. 19.

    beltane

    November 20, 2015 at 12:28 am

    I was really proud of my oldest son today. In the past he has upset me by joining an evangelical church, but it seems not to have turned him into a Republican. He told me he got into a fight with some idiot who was ranting about the danger posed by Syrian refugees and had to restrain himself from beating the crap out of the guy.

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    November 20, 2015 at 12:30 am

    @Warren Terra: we’d feel differently if they were killing people that were living on top of easily exploited oil fields is my best guess….

  21. 21.

    Starfish

    November 20, 2015 at 12:36 am

    @efgoldman: I am still getting those no data errors too. I consider that by far the most serious mistake in this redesign and think it should be fixed.

  22. 22.

    Mandalay

    November 20, 2015 at 12:39 am

    @efgoldman:

    here is the vote tally for that stupid fucking refugee bill, in the House

    From your link it looks like Steve King was the only Republican to vote against that bill.

    WTF???…he’s so wacko that he makes Louie Gohmert seem reasonable and he actually rejected that bill?

  23. 23.

    Anne Laurie

    November 20, 2015 at 12:46 am

    @piratedan:

    we’d feel differently if they were killing people that were living on top of easily exploited oil fields is my best guess….

    No, actually, Nigeria is a major oil exporter — but the megacorporations exploiting those fields have historically had no problem paying off the terrorists. Part of the upsurge in Boko Haram attacks is that, with outside firms buying less oil (paying less for ‘protection’ of sites & workers), Boko Haram has had to find new sources of funding, threatening local city/state governments who don’t have the deep pockets and vast security resources to keep a lid on the murder-for-ideology gangsters.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 20, 2015 at 12:51 am

    @Anne Laurie: Um, okay. You are more than welcome to pester me. Either in the comments, or as you have my contact info, offline if you prefer. Makes little sense to have me hanging around here if everyone is afraid to ask me a question…

    You may want to see if you can find an article on this buy a friend of mine named Magnus Ranstorp. I don’t know the title, but I know it was published in the 2002-2003 time frame. If you search his name you should find it. He did the analysis back in the early aughts on this and I’m basically just paraphrasing his work.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    November 20, 2015 at 12:51 am

    @Mandalay

    His explanation for his vote was that the bill was too tame and didn’t go far enough.

    Really.

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 20, 2015 at 1:01 am

    @max: Actually they regularly move and strike cross border. Boko is the most violent and active of the Fulani Islamic extremist groups. Yes, they are separatists, but not just in seeking to separate the Islamic majority areas of Northern Nigeria, but also to attach the Fulani areas in neighboring countries to that as well. Their version/understanding of Islam is very unique. They are radical proselytizers and utilize violence, and now terrorism, to do so. The Fulani absorbed the larger Hasa tribe, which practiced a much more traditionally (normative?) form of Islam. When they merged with the Fulani, the Fulani overwhelmed them. What’s interesting is that the Fulani in Mali, which go by a different name, are not violent at all and have largely been integrated into Malian society.

  27. 27.

    Mandalay

    November 20, 2015 at 1:02 am

    Part of the upsurge in Boko Haram attacks is that, with outside firms buying less oil (paying less for ‘protection’ of sites & workers), Boko Haram has had to find new sources of funding

    A major source of revenue for Boko Haram was stealing oil, but they are impacted by the low oil price just as much as any other seller. The good news for them is that the low price of oil means the Nigerian government can’t afford the resources to effectively go after Boko Haram.

    Our government is pretty good at wasting money on crazy ways to combat terrorism, but giving some weaponry to the Nigerian government to go after BH wouldn’t be the worst thing we’d ever done.

  28. 28.

    Mandalay

    November 20, 2015 at 1:06 am

    @NotMax:

    the bill was too tame and didn’t go far enough

    Ah. Method to his madness.

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    November 20, 2015 at 1:10 am

    @Mary G:

    Boko Haram sticks to killing mostly brown people, so they don’t really count.

    So does Daesh, actually. About 92% of their victims are Muslim, but as usual, white people have to make it all about themselves.

  30. 30.

    Myiq2xu

    November 20, 2015 at 3:39 am

    Boko Haram, the militant group that has tortured Nigeria and its neighbors for years, was responsible for 6,664 deaths last year, more than any other terrorist group in the world, including the Islamic State, which killed 6,073 people in 2014, according to a report released Wednesday tracking terrorist attacks globally.

    I didn’t realize it was a competition.

  31. 31.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 20, 2015 at 6:54 am

    @efgoldman: Well, American cops didn’t measure up this year, they’re only in the low 1000s.

  32. 32.

    p.a.

    November 20, 2015 at 8:46 am

    So, ISIS = Avis?

  33. 33.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    November 20, 2015 at 9:34 am

    Well, unless I’m badly mistaken, Boko Haram kills mostly Black people in Africa, so we don’t really need to count those deaths. It’s true that ISIS kills Muslim Middle Easterners, and normally, that wouldn’t count for anything, either, but it’s happening in Iraq, and we’ve taken quite the interest there in the last 15 years or so, so there’s that. Also, ISIS has killed white people, so that shoots them to the head of the list, too.

  34. 34.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 20, 2015 at 9:55 am

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s how the Kashmir struggle started in the late 80s and early nineties, it was not a sectarian struggle, JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front) was fighting for independence. AFAIK JKLF is defunct now. the Indian army behaves like an occupying army and Pakistan is trying to recreate its Taliban experiment in the valley. Poor Kashmiris.

    India

  35. 35.

    Marc

    November 20, 2015 at 10:19 am

    Why do people feel the need to assert racism based on their imaginary characterization of how other people react to things? There were *tons* of news stories and there was *tons* of publicity about Boko Haram and their systematic campaign of murder, rape, and kidnapping. There is a ton of information about the problem – which is an utterly corrupt Nigerian state incapable of dealing with them. In fact, it led to the former leaders being tossed out in elections largely focused on combating BH.

    These atrocities were extensively covered in the news. Precisely who ignored them? Examples, perhaps?

    Christ almighty, we’re getting as bad as the reactionaries in creating imaginary foes with devil horns on their heads.

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