Did Nigeria record lowest terrorism attacks in decade?

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AN X user, Mohammed Jammal (@whitenigerian), has claimed that Nigeria recorded the lowest terrorism attacks in the last 10 years while citing an infographic attributed to Channels TV.

He posted the claim along the photos of Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA); General Christopher Musa, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the infographic which was reportedly from the 2025 Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

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“Terrorist attacks in Nigeria at its lowest in over a decade,” the caption on his X post read.

The post has garnered over 250,000 views, with more than 700 reposts and over 2,500 likes as of March 12, 2025.

 

CLAIM

Nigeria recorded the lowest terrorism attacks in a decade.

 

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is TRUE, according to the 2025 GTI.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a comprehensive study analysing the impact of terrorism for 163 countries, covering 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) using data from Terrorism Tracker and other sources, the GTI produces a composite score to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism. The GTI scores each country on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 represents no impact from terrorism and 10 represents the highest measurable impact of terrorism.

Year Incidents Deaths Injured
2024 99 565 177
2023 145 524 89
2022 120 385 147
2021 204 448 161
2020
2019 411 1245 419
2018 562 2040 772
2017 411 1532 852
2016 466 1832 919
2015 588 4940 2786
2014 662 7512 2246

Figures for Nigeria in the Global Terrorism Index, 2014 – 2024 reports. Source: GTI.

According to its latest ranking, released on March 5, 2025, Nigeria recorded 99 terrorism incidents in 2024, which is lower than the 145 incidents recorded in 2023. This is the lowest number of terror attacks recorded since 2014, according to previous Global Terrorism Index reports of the last 10 years reviewed by The FactCheckHub.

However, the number of deaths as a result of terrorism was 565, which is higher than the 524 and 385 recorded in 2023 and 2022, respectively. This was also reported by Channels TV on March 10, 2025.

However, the country rises in ranking to sixth in 2024 from eighth place it was in 2023 and 2022, among the top 10 countries most impacted by terrorism in the world.

The 2025 GTI report shows that while attacks in Nigeria decreased by 37 per cent, deaths from terrorism continue to rise, increasing by six per cent to 565 in 2024, and thus marking the highest death toll since 2020 due to ongoing conflict between Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram.

GTI
CREDITS: 2025 GTI report.

Together, fatalities attributed to these groups accounted for nearly 60 percent of all terrorism-related deaths in the country.

Five terror attacks that occurred in Nigeria in 2024 were also ranked among the world’s 50 most devastating.

The attacks, which took place in Yobe and Borno states, were carried out by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province and ranked 7th, 9th, 24th, 30th, and 33rd on the global list in the report.

According to the report, the deadliest of the Nigerian attacks occurred on September 1, 2024, in Yobe State, when 100 people were killed in an armed assault by Boko Haram.

The attack was ranked the seventh-worst terrorist incident globally in 2024.

Another major attack took place on April 24, 2024, in Borno State, where 85 people lost their lives in an ISWAP-led armed attack. The attack was ranked ninth globally.

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Other attacks in Nigeria listed in the report include an ISWAP attack on September 1, 2024, in Yobe, which resulted in 37 deaths and was ranked 24th; a jihadist attack in Borno on May 26, 2024, that claimed 30 lives and was ranked 30th; and a bombing by an unidentified jihadist group on June 29, 2024, in Borno, which also killed 30 people and was ranked 33rd among the world’s 50 most devastating incidents.

 

THE VERDICT

The claim that Nigeria recorded the lowest terrorism attacks in a decade is TRUE. However, the country shifted in ranking to 6th among the top 10 most impacted by terrorism from 8th position it was in 2022 and 2023, accounting for a very high number of deaths and some of the most devastating terrorism incidents in the world.

 

EDITOR’S NOTE:

* Infographic has been added to this report to replace the earlier featured image of Boko Haram terrorists.

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Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

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