• Killed
1,132 in 364 attacks, says U.S. report
• Group’s, Talibans’ record higher than
killings by Al-Qaeda, Maoists, Al-Shabaah
WITH only the Talibans in
Afghanistan ahead, Boko Haram is now the second widely known perpetrator of
terrorism in the world, according to a report by the United States (U.S.)
government.
Just last week, the U.S.
State Department announced a $7 million bounty for information that will lead
to the capture of the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.
An annex to the U.S.
government report on terrorism last year, just made available to The Guardian,
shows that besides the Taliban in Afghanistan, Boko Haram in Nigeria had the
highest number of terror attacks last year and killed also the second highest number
of people.
The statistical report
called ‘START’ conducted by the University of Maryland for the American
government on global terrorism in 2012 has revealed that while the Talibans
killed 1,842 people in 525 attacks last year, and came tops on the infamous
ranking, Boko Haram came second killing 1,132 in 364 attacks.
Both the Talibans and Boko
Haram killed more than Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Maoists in India, Al-Shabaab,
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula among other global terrorist groups.
Commenting, the Christian
Association of Nigerian Americans (CANAN) noted that based on these statistics
of the U.S. government, the refusal of the State Department to designate Boko
Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) continued to be unsettling.
A statement from the group
on Monday in New York said: “The statistics that were computed at the
instruction of the U.S. government by a reputable university deemed a centre of
excellence by the U.S. government show proof why Boko Haram should be
designated.”
CANAN added: “This is a
further evidence that our demand to the State Department to designate Boko
Haram an FTO is a position backed up by facts and reality. Our hope and
expectation is that soon, the State Department will do what is right.”
The statistical report also
revealed that of the top 10 countries with the most terrorist attacks last
year, Nigeria came fifth because of the activities of Boko Haram.
Besides, Nigeria ranked
fourth in number of deaths from terrorist attacks. According to the statistical
information attached to the recent “U.S. Terrorism 2012 reports”, last year
alone, there were a total number of 546 terror attacks in Nigeria with 1,386
killed.
“The average lethality of
terrorist attacks in Nigeria (2.54 deaths per attack) is more than 50 per cent
higher than the global average of 1.64.”
The statistical report
revealed that in 2012, the majority of highly lethal attacks -159
in all -, took place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria,
killing a total of 2,880 people.
The report stated that Boko
Haram “was responsible for a number of highly lethal attacks in 2012, including
a series of co-ordinated bombings and armed assaults in Kano, Nigeria, on
January 20 that killed an estimated 190 people.”
The ‘START’ was conducted
by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to
Terrorism, based at the University of Maryland. The consortium is deemed a U.S.
Homeland Security Centre of Excellence for Science and Technology.
The U.S. laws require the
government in its yearly terrorism reports to include complete statistical
information on number of individuals killed, injured or kidnapped by each
terrorist group during the preceding year.
Last year June, the U.S.
State Department contracted the consortium to collect the statistical data.
Source: Guardian
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