Extremists can strike anywhere, but some nations bear a far greater brunt than others. While Paris might grab the headlines, things are much tougher in Nigeria.
Ours can seem a dangerous world – but the dangers are much greater for some of us than others.
On Monday, the US state department issued a warning to American citizens about “increased terrorist threats” in several regions.
The warning came after the Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead, and the lockdown across Europe as the hunt continues for those still on the loose.
Yet the risks of becoming a victim depend largely on who you are and where you live. The biggest attack on US citizens this year took place on home soil – the shooting of nine African Americans at a church in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist.
By contrast, one of the worst outrages of the year took place in the Nigerian town of Baga, near the border with Chad. Members of the extremist group, Boko Haram, entered Baga between January 3 and for four days carried out wholesale slaughter of the inhabitants.
The death toll is impossible to verify. The Nigerian government said it was about 150 people, but some aid agencies say it could have been as many as 2,000.
The Baga massacre made few headlines. It was overshadowed by the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris on January 7, when two gunman aligning themselves with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula entered the magazine’s offices and murdered 11 members of staff, including several cartoonists whose work had mocked the Prophet Mohammed.
In the days that followed, world leaders gathered in Paris in a show of unity, while others declared their solidarity with the phrase “Je suis Charlie”. No one tweeted “Je suis Baga”.
The statistics on this page compile, as best as is possible, the number of civilians who have died in terrorist attacks so far this year.
US security officials say last year was the worst on record for terrorism. This year looks set to eclipse that grim statistic.
As the Baga massacre demonstrates, calculating a precise death toll is impossible, but it runs into the thousands. Attacks have taken place in at least 30 countries, with the citizens of another 20 nations dying in incidents overseas.
They include Japan, Mexico, Belgium, China, Poland, Spain, Ireland, Algeria, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom, which lost 30 holidaymakers in the Tunisian hotel shooting.
In the Paris attacks, 19 nations lost citizens. More than a quarter of the world’s countries have suffered as a result of fatal terrorist incidents this year.
The main twin architects of misery are Boko Haram and ISIL, between them responsible for at least 3,000 deaths of innocent civilians in the first 11 months of this year.
Boko Haram is an extremist group operating in north-east Nigeria and its borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon, and has carried out at least 45 attacks this year in which civilians have been targeted.
ISIL has spread its net of terror increasingly wider, taking credit for bombings and shootings in the region and atrocities such as the destruction of a Russian airliner packed with holidaymakers over the Sinai desert last month.
If there was a league table for depravity, Boko Haram and ISIL would be vying for the top spot.
Other familiar names are still active. Members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continue their slaughter of innocents, although not on the same scale as in the past.
In countries where terrorists regularly strike, Nigeria tops the list, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Saudi Arabia has experienced five attacks this year by ISIL, as has Yemen.
The attacks are largely carried out by those who claim to be acting in the name of Islam, and their victims are overwhelming Muslim.
Despite the headlines, those living in the West are the safest in the world. France’s four attacks this year are highly unusual, which is why they generate such publicity.
Those responsible know this, of course.
plangton@thenational.ae
