According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace, five Islamic groups topped the list of the deadliest forces on earth deemed “terrorist.”
Islamic group Boko Haram, which operates mainly in Nigeria, but also in Cameroon and Chad, killed the most people in 2014: 7,512 — up 300 percent from 2013.
Islamic group Islamic State killed slightly less — 6,073 — in its Middle East conquests in 2014.
Islamic group Taliban took 3,477 lives the same year in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Islamic group Fulani Militants killed 1,229 in the Central African Republic, up from less than one hundred in 2013.
Islamic group Al-Shabaab — a group affiliated with al-Qa’ida — killed 1,021 people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2014.
The Institute for Economics and Peace noted a rise in militant attacks globally — up 80 percent in one year and up 900 percent since 2000. In 2014 there were a total 32,658 deaths due to militancy, compared with 2000’s 3,329.
Terrorist attacks were up everywhere last year. While 80 percent of deaths took place in five countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria — countries in which over 500 terrorist attacks took place within the year rose 120 percent. Sixty-seven countries experienced at least one terrorist attack resulting in death in 2014.
Many Western countries experienced terrorist attacks in 2014, including Canada, France, Austria, Australia and Belgium, but most of these killings were ascribed in the report to “lone wolf” attacks — contrasted against “Islamic fundamentalism.” The group cited right wing extremism, nationalism, anti-government elements, and other types of of political extremism and supremacism for these attacks. However, attacks numbers were relatively low in Western countries and all countries without an ongoing armed conflict.