The Countries Hit Hardest By Terrorists

Last year, France experienced the largest decrease in terrorist attacks since 2013. The only terrorism-related death recorded in France last year was a police employee who was fatally stabbed by a Tunisian man living in the country without authorization, who had expressed interest in Islamist terrorist groups but was not known to be affiliated with them. Five other terrorist attacks in France have been attributed to far-left groups and one to a Corsican separatist organization. Still, compared to 2011, the country’s ranking on the list worsened.

Good news for Nepal, which improved in ranking over the past decade. There was only one terrorist attack and no fatalities recorded in the country – the first time since 2014. The mountainous landlocked South Asian country between India and Tibet regularly grapples with Maoist militants of the Communist Party of Nepal, which waged a “people’s war” from 1996 to 2006 that killed 13,000 people. Residual violence from that struggle continues, albeit at a much more subdued level.

Germany recorded 19 terrorist attacks in 2021, the highest of any Western country as the country’s ranking slid over the decade. It now ranks fourth worst overall in impact of terrorism in Europe. Still, the number of attacks declined by 34% last year compared to 2020. Also, there were no deaths in 2021 while there were 11 in 2020. All of the attacks in 2021 came from far-left groups and individuals using incendiary devices against businesses and infrastructure.

Like its adversary Israel, Palestine experienced a slight improvement in terrorist acts in 2021. Still, civilians in this partially recognized state continue to confront internal acts of terror perpetuated by Hamas militants against suspected Israeli sympathizers, on top of the occasional barrages from Israeli Defense Forces responding to rocket attacks from Gaza, one of the most densely-populated urban areas in the world. Israel remains the biggest threat to Palestinian civilians as it conducts military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

The U.K. recorded 12 terrorist attacks last year, half the number that occurred in 2020. In one high-profile incident on Oct. 15, 2021, conservative MP Sir David Amess, 69, was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali, 26, a British man of Somali descent who claimed to have wanted to kill British lawmakers who voted in support of Western military action in Syria. In another incident, a bomb was detonated on Nov. 11 in a taxi near Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Israel ranking on this list improved over the decade, and the country recorded a slightly improved situation in relation to terrorism in 2021. However, the ongoing tensions between Israel and the Palestinians remain a constant threat. In fact, acts of terrorism in Israel have picked up this year in a wave of violence that includes attacks by Israeli Arabs aligned to Islamic State with no known ties to the Palestinian movement.

Greece recorded 50 terrorist attacks last year, a 22% increase from 2020, the highest number in Europe. However, no deaths were reported in these incidents. The only group to claim responsibility for any of these attacks was Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, an anarchist organization. All of the attacks are suspected to have been instigated by far-left groups. Most of the attacks targeted police and prisons and government and political organizations.

Terrorist attacks in the United States fell to their lowest level since 2015, though the U.S. ranking on this list worsened considerably over the decade. Last year, the U.S. recorded seven attacks and three deaths compared to nine attacks and two deaths in 2020. The Institute for Economics & Peace that created the report differs from other organizations that have higher estimates for U.S. terrorist attacks. For example, the Center for Strategic & International Studies estimates there were 30 deaths due to terrorism in the U.S. last year.

Iran is widely accused of backing acts of terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries as part of its fight against Israel, Saudi Arabia, and American hegemony in the region. But it also deals with internal acts of terrorism against Iranian people. The situation remained unchanged in 2021, though 2022 may show a different picture. One recent act, on Oct. 26, is the attack on a Shia Muslim shrine in Shiraz that killed 15 people and injured 40. The Islamic State, a terrorist organization that identifies as Sunni, claimed responsibility for the attack.

It will be interesting to see how the Institute for Economics & Peace will consider the ongoing state violence against protesting Iranian people as the Mahsa Amini protests continue.

Islamic State-affiliated groups continue to operate across the Middle East North Africa regions, including three recorded attacks in the months after the country’s two main warring factions signed a ceasefire that ended Libya’s second civil war since the violent death of longtime dictator Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011.

Despite economic and political crises, Sir Lanka reported no terrorism-related deaths in 2021 for the second consecutive year. This good news comes after a series of attacks in 2019, a particularly bad year that included the killing of 250 people in attacks against three churches and three hotels in April, according to the U.K. government, which maintains a travel warning to that country.

Terrorist attacks in Indonesia were more lethal in 2021: deaths rose by 85% even as the number of incidents declined by 24%. These attacks came mostly from separatists like the Free Papua Movement (OPM) and the West Papuan National Liberation Army. Islamic State was also responsible for two incidents, including one attack that killed four farmers. The group claimed the farmers were targeted for being Christians.

Six recorded terrorist attacks occurred in Turkey, but the transcontinental country of Western Asia experienced a significant decline in deaths from these types of assaults, from 587 in 2016 to 13 in 2021. Attacks targeting civilians decreased from 2020 to 2021, but they increased against the military.

With 776 fatalities since 2011, Thailand recorded the second-highest number of deaths in the Asia-Pacific region over that time. But terrorism deaths have declined since a peak in 2011 of 178 deaths. Last year, only seven deaths at the hands of terrorists were recorded, half the number recorded in 2020. The main source of terrorist acts in Thailand are related to an ongoing conflict with an ethnic and religious separatist insurgency in the country’s south.

War-ravaged Yemen is among the 10 countries that recorded an increase in deaths from terrorist acts last year compared to 2020 as a war against Iranian-backed Houthis continues to sow death and mayhem among the population. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also operates with relative impunity in the country.

The Salafist terrorist organization Al-Shabaab is active in East Africa, especially in Somalia and Kenya where it is based. Most of the group’s violence occurs in Somalia, but 6% of the 571 people murdered by the organization were in Kenya last year. The group’s terrorist incidents declined last year by 56 attacks, to 303, compared to 2020, thanks to U.S. and African counterterrorism operations.

Though the security situation in much of the Sahel region of Africa is deteriorating, the situation is not as bad in Chad, the landlocked county situated between Niger and Sudan. Though it is one of the world’s poorest countries, rife with internal conflict and humanitarian problems, Chad experienced one of the largest decreases in deaths from terrorism last year despite the fact that groups like Boko Haram remain active there.

Terrorism-related deaths in Chile fell from 157 in 2020 to 92 last year, the result of attacks claimed by different groups, including extremists from the Mapuche indigenous group. While acts of terrorism are fairly frequent in Chile, they tend to have low death tolls. Chile recorded 831 such attacks and 11 deaths over the past decade. But 362 of these attacks occurred in 2021 amid a recent surge in conflict between Mapuche extremists and the Chilean government.

Along with Myanmar, Afghanistan, Niger, and Mali, this central African country of 92 million had among the largest increase in the number of people killed by terrorists last year. The DRC is politically unstable, and in 2018 the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), responsible for attacks on civilians, government forces, and U.N. peacekeepers, forged an alliance with Islamic State.

For the first time since 2015, the Philippines has not been the Asian country most affected by terrorism. That claim now goes to Myanmar following the military coup there in February 2021. But the Philippines has racked up the highest death toll from terrorist acts over the past decade, with more than 1,000 people murdered over the 10-year span. Local groups affiliated with Islamic State remain the biggest terrorist threat in the country.

The number of recorded deaths at the hands of terrorists decreased in Egypt, from 119 in 2020 to 66 last year. A majority of terrorist acts in Egypt are claimed by Islamic State or the group’s affiliate in Sinai Province.

Colombia remains the most terrorism-ravaged country in the Americas despite minor improvements over the past decade. Deaths from terrorism declined to 73 last year from 151 in 2020. Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continue to be responsible for terrorist acts in the country, including acts by breakaway members unhappy with the 2019 peace agreement between the FARC and the Colombian government.

The southern coastal African country recorded 414 fewer terrorism-related deaths last year, an 82% decline from 2020, thanks to successful counterterrorism operations against Islamic State that reduced the number of terrorist attacks by about two-thirds, from 22 in 2020 to seven last year. Last year, Mozambique experienced the lowest number of deaths from terrorist attacks since 2017.

Communal tensions pitting Hindutva (Hinda nationalism) militants against the country’s Muslim minority is often the background for violence in the country, especially since Narendra Modi was elected the country’s prime minister in 2014 as well as the rise in power of the right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party. But none of that violence is considered acts of terrorism. The main perpetuator of terrorist acts in the country is from militants of groups like the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), and the number of deaths from bona fide acts of terrorism declined last year compared to 2020.

The west-central African country bordering Nigeria to the south is among the 10 countries that regularly grapple with acts of terrorism that recorded a decline in related deaths. Nevertheless, the county has experienced spillover terrorism from Islamic State in West Africa, which overtook Boko Haram as the deadliest terrorist group in Nigeria.

The South Asian country recorded a 5% increase in the number of terrorism-related deaths last year, to 275 in 186 incidents. Deaths and incidents were down significantly from a peak in 2011, when more than 1,600 people were killed. The military, which has been disarming and eliminating terrorist sleeper cells, is the most common target of terrorist attacks. Tehrik-e-Taliban has overtaken the Balochistan Liberation Army as the country’s deadliest terrorist organization.

Terrorist attacks in Myanmar (formerly Burma) surged to 750 last year, from 25 in 2020. This 20-year high is the result of political instability in the wake of the coup d’état and the formation of a military junta. Two of the world’s 20 most lethal terrorist attacks of 2021 occurred in Myanmar, including a bomb that killed 30 soldiers in an Aug. 23 attack in Magway region, claimed by the Yesagyo Peoples’ Defense Force.

Like in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, this country in the center of Africa’s Sahel region has experienced substantial increases in terrorism-related deaths last year. The world’s third deadliest attack of 2021 occurred in Niger’s Tahoua region, when on March 21 gunmen killed 137 people in coordinated attacks. Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) claimed responsibility for the slaughter.

As in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, the western landlocked country in Africa’s Sahel region had experienced some of the world’s 20 deadliest terrorist attacks of 2021. Among them was a March 15 ambush by about 100 assailants that killed 33 soldiers and wounded 14 others, not including the reported 20 attackers that were killed in the skirmish. Islamic State in West Africa claimed responsibility for the attack.

Terrorists in Africa’s most populous country and largest economy upped the number of attacks last year, but these attacks killed fewer people. Though the number of attacks had increased 49%, to 204 incidents, they killed 448 people, the fewest since 2011. The biggest factor in the lower severity of these attacks has been counterinsurgency operations against Boko Haram, the terrorist group based in northeastern Nigeria that operates in numerous countries in the region.

Syria experienced the best improvement in terrorism-related fatalities last year, with 488 deaths in 2021 compared to 724 deaths in the previous year. Like in Egypt, the reduction in fatalities and incidents coincided with a scaling back of attacks from Islamic State last year.

Four of the world’s 20 deadliest terrorist attacks of 2021 occurred in this landlocked West African country. They include the second-deadliest attack last year in which gunmen massacred at least 160 people and wounded at least 40 others as they torched homes and a market in Solhan village on June 5. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but militant jihadists are known to operate in the area.

Like Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia remains one of the countries suffering the highest impact from terrorism. But the country recorded a modest improvement last year, with 308 deaths compared to 341 in 2020. The biggest factor in the reduction of terrorist activity was the retaking of the capital Mogadishu and other areas that were held by the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab by U.S. and African Union security forces.

Iraq reported a 15% increase in deaths from terrorist attacks last year compared to 2020, in 33% more attacks. Two of the world’s 20 deadliest attacks last year occurred in Iraq, including a bombing that killed 35 and wounded 60 in a Shia-majority neighborhood of Baghdad on the eve of Eid Al-Adha on July 19. Islamic State took credit for this and other attacks in the country.

There were a recorded 1,426 terrorism-related deaths in Afghanistan last year, 14% higher than the previous year. Six of the 20 worst attacks of 2021 occurred there, including two coordinated suicides bombing near the vicinity of Kabul International Airport on Aug. 8, claimed by a local Islamic State group. The attack killed at least 170 people and injured at least 200.