By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Sahel region of Africa, which has become the “global epicentre of terrorism,” accounted for nearly half of all terrorism-related deaths for the third consecutive year in 2025, the Global Terrorism Report said on Thursday.
The index, compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace think tank, has ranked 163 countries for 13 years according to the impact of “terrorism” based on indicators such as the number of attacks, deaths, injuries and hostages.
It defines terrorism as “the systematic threat or use of violence by non-state actors, whether for or in opposition to established authority.”
In 2024, more than half of the 7,555 deaths due to “terrorism” worldwide were recorded in the Sahel, a semi-arid belt stretching along the Sahara Desert’s southern rim from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
The trend remained largely unchanged in 2025, with nearly half of the 5,582 deaths attributed to “terrorists” occurring in the Sahel, although the total number of victims in the region fell, the Australia-based think tank said.
“The Sahel has suffered a tenfold increase in terrorism fatalities since 2007”, when it accounted for only one percent of global terrorism-related deaths.
“The epicentre of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa, into the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa,” the report said.
Burkina Faso was the most affected country in the world for two consecutive years, but was overtaken in 2025 by Pakistan.
“Deaths from terrorism in Pakistan are now at their highest level since 2013, with the country recording 1,139 terrorism deaths and 1,045 incidents in 2025,” the report said.
“This follows a sharp resurgence in terrorist activity driven in part by the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021,” the report said, also pointing to rising violence by the Pakistani Taliban movement and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active separatist militant group.
JNIM and Islamic State group
Burkina Faso, meanwhile, saw the greatest decline in the number of deaths in 2025, falling 45 percent from the previous year, to 846, the report noted.
The reason was mostly an 84-percent reduction in civilian casualties rather than an improvement in security.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, which is the main jihadist group active in Burkina, has shifted its strategy to target soldiers rather than civilians in its attacks.
Niger, listed fifth in 2024, climbed to third place with an increase in “terrorism” incidents in 2025 and surpassed Mali and Syria with 703 deaths, more than half of which were civilians.
Nigeria rose to fourth place on the index, with 750 people killed in 2025, up 46 per cent from the previous year.
“This marks the highest death toll since 2020, driven by internal instability as well as ongoing conflict between ISWAP and Boko Haram,” the report said.
Mali saw a decline in deaths, now ranked fifth on the index, with 341 killed last year compared to 604 in 2024.
The report attributes most attacks in the Sahel to the Islamic State group and JNIM.
It also highlighted the expansion of the jihadist groups to West Africa’s coastal countries, particularly Benin, which has shot up to 19th place on the index from 26th.
Other organisations, such as ACLED, which monitors conflict-related casualties worldwide, report higher figures for jihadism-related deaths in the Sahel.
AFP