Global Terrorism: a reality check

There has been a nine-fold increase in deaths due to terrorism globally, rising from 3,329 in 2000 to 32,685 in 2014, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think-tank based in Sydney, Australia.

The global economic cost of terrorism was $283 billion in the past 15 years, reaching a record high of $53 billion in 2014. The prime targets of terrorist attacks have been citizens and private property. Deaths of private citizens increased 172 per cent in 2014 over the previous year.

Nigeria-based Boko Haram and the Islamic State accounted for 51 per cent of total deaths attributed to terrorist groups in 2014. Boko Haram has emerged as the deadliest terror outfit in 2014, killing over 6,664 people, an increase of 317 per cent over the previous year. Boko Haram pledged its allegiance to ISIS, renaming itself as Islamic State's West Africa Province in March 2015.

Another terrorist group, Fulani militants, has emerged in Nigeria that had killed 1,229 people in 2014. The top five terrorist groups were responsible for 74% of all terrorist-related deaths. IS claimed 6,073 deaths in 2014, the most after Boko Haram. The Global Terrorism report highlights that ISIS inflicts more deaths on the battlefield (20,000) than through terrorism (6,073) attributed to the group.