NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20 — Burkina Faso has recorded the highest number of deaths from terrorism for the second year running, with 1,907 deaths recorded in 2023 in the latest Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
The GTI 2024 indicates that the West African state now accounts for nearly a quarter of all deaths from terrorism globally.
The report has revealed that in the 13 years that it has documented terrorism, it is the first time a country other than Afghanistan or Iraq has been at the top of the index.
“The increasing intensity of terrorism in Burkina Faso is shown in the increased lethality of attacks, with over seven deaths per attack in 2023, compared to under four deaths per attack in the previous year,” the GTI report reads in part.
The report highlights that the impact of terrorism in Burkina Faso has been steadily mounting since 2014, a trend mirrored in neighboring Mali and Niger.
Despite a 17 per cent decrease in the number of attacks in the West African state, deaths from terrorism surged by 68 per cent in 2023
Particularly alarming is the targeting of civilians, who now comprise over half of all terror-related fatalities in the country.
Northwestern Burkina Faso, bordering Niger and Mali, bore the brunt of terrorist activity in 2023, accounting for nearly half of all attacks.
Of the country’s 1,907 deaths in 2023, 1,000 occurred along the Niger border.
The deadliest incident of the year occurred in this region, claiming the lives of at least 71 soldiers in a February ambush.
Security forces retaliated, reportedly killing 160 assailants, with IS claiming responsibility for the attack, ranking it as the fifth deadliest worldwide.
“Civilians were the most targeted group for the fifth consecutive year, accounting for 1,132 deaths or over 59 per cent of all terror-related deaths in the country,” the report adds.
The Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) group remains the primary perpetrator of terrorism in Burkina Faso, despite a static number of attacks; fatalities attributed to the group surged nearly five-fold from 2022 to 2023, averaging nearly 20 deaths per attack.
Globally, terrorism claimed 8,352 lives in 2023, marking a 22 per cent increase from the previous year.
Notably, this figure remains 23 per cent lower than the peak recorded in 2015.
“Excluding the October 7th Hamas attack, deaths would have still been up by five per cent,” the GTI report adds.
The GTI report underlined a concerning trend of highly lethal terrorist attacks, even as the total number of incidents decreases.
While the number of affected countries fell from 60 to 50, the GTI report indicates that the severity of attacks continues to escalate, posing a grave threat to global security.
