Emerging Trends: Global Terrorism Ubiquitous in 2020, but Bulk of Activity Concentrated in a Few Regions

As if the coronavirus pandemic were not challenging enough, many will be surprised to learn the grim news that incidents of global terrorism increased in 2020. The world suffered a reported 10,172 terrorism incidents in 2020, a sum surpassing those in 2019 by 1,300, or a 15 percent increase. The 29,389 fatalities attributable to terrorist incidents in 2020 were 3,116 more than in 2019, a 12 percent increase.

The story beyond the headlines is even more troubling and requires a more detailed review of geography and perpetrator groups to get beyond simple statistics.  In 2020, terrorism remained widespread around the world, with incidents occurring in 98 countries. However, 86.5 percent of these — or more than six of every seven attacks — were concentrated in three geographic regions: Western Asia, Southern Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the increase from the previous year can be accounted for by a significant escalation in terrorist activity in Yemen and neighboring Saudi Arabia and a troubling rise throughout Africa, particularly in the Sahel, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo; the DRC endured a 160 percent increase in incidents. Afghanistan, Syria, the DRC, Yemen, India, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Mali were the 10 countries that experienced the highest numbers of terrorist incidents in 2020. Incidents in these 10 nations accounted for 75.7 percent of all global terrorist incidents and 89.3 percent of all fatalities attributable to terrorism in 2020.

Throughout the history of terrorism, many reported incidents have gone unclaimed by a particular perpetrator group or individual. Our methodology at the Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Center is, if it is unclear or unclaimed who perpetrated an attack, to code it as unknown.

Among the known perpetrators in 2020, the Taliban was responsible for the most incidents and fatalities. Rounding out the top five, in order, were ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), al-Shabaab, CPI-Maoists, and ISIS-DRC.
The Taliban was responsible for 1,325 incidents and 7,417 fatalities in 2020, a decrease of 10 percent in incidents and 6 percent in fatalities from 2019; even so, these accounted for about 39 percent of the total fatalities attributed to terrorism globally. (In 2019 the Taliban was responsible for 7,918 fatalities, about 33 percent of the global total.)

With 507 terrorist incidents, ISIS was the next-most-active terrorist organization, responsible for 1,432 fatalities. Al-Shabaab ranked no. 3, responsible for 477 incidents and 1,393 fatalities (compared with its 484 attacks and the 1,409 fatalities it caused in 2019). CPI-Maoists in India was the fourth-most-destructive group in 2020, with 298 incidents and 202 fatalities. ISIS-DRC was the no. 5 most-active perpetrator group, responsible for 275 incidents — but also a calamitous 1,435 fatalities.

More troubling is that ISIS and Al-Qa’ida affiliates are still highly active — and growing — in many countries. The Department of State designated ISIS-Mozambique and ISIS-DRC foreign terrorist organizations on March 10, 2021.
Other stories behind these numbers that are still hard to quantify accurately are the social economic suffering on those communities perpetually living in fear and the vast displacement of people seeking shelter and refuge from these destructive conflicts.