Boko Haram deadliest

This item appears on page 18 of the January 2016 issue.

Bombings executed by Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group based in Nigeria but also active in Cameroon, Niger and Chad, killed at least 60 people in northeastern Nigeria in November. On Nov. 17, a bomb in a market in the eastern city of Yola killed 32 people and injured at least 80 others. On Nov. 18, two female suicide bombers in Kano, in north-central Nigeria, killed at least 12 people, and on Nov. 27 at least 21 people in Kano were killed by a suicide bomber during a Shia Muslim procession.

A study, released on Nov. 18 by the Institute of Economics & Peace (an independent nonprofit think tank), found that Boko Haram was the world’s deadliest terrorist group in 2014, accounting for 6,664 deaths. The second-deadliest group, ISIL, or Daesh, based in Iraq and Syria but with operatives worldwide, was reported to be responsible for 6,073 deaths. Together, the two groups accounted for half of all deaths attributed to terrorist acts.