Africa Surpasses 150,000 Deaths Linked to Militant Islamist Groups in Past Decade
By the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
July 28, 2025
Escalating violence in the Sahel and Somalia has caused fatalities linked to militant Islamist groups in Africa to surge by 60 percent since 2023.
Militant Islamist groups in Africa continue to be highly active agents of instability across five theaters on the continent. The 22,307 fatalities linked to these groups over the past year sustain a record level of lethality observed since 2023 and represent a 60-percent increase from the 2020-2022 period.
Nearly half of the fatalities (10,685) in the past year have been in the Sahel. Somalia represents roughly a third of the continental fatalities (7,289). Along with the Lake Chad Basin, these three regions account for 99 percent of the militant Islamist-linked fatalities in Africa the past year.
Battle-related fatalities have increased in every theater over the past year.
All five African theaters (including Mozambique and North Africa) remain highly dynamic with militant insurgents mounting offensive operations in each, especially in the Sahel and Somalia. Battle-related fatalities have increased in every theater over the past year—resulting in a 14-percent rise of battle-related deaths across the continent (15,678).
The past year has also seen militant Islamists groups in the Sahel and Somalia expand their hold on territory. Across Africa, an estimated 950,000 square kilometers (367,000 square miles) of populated territories are outside government control due to militant Islamist insurgencies. This is equivalent to the size of Tanzania.
https://africacenter.org/spotlight/en-2025-mig-10-year/
