Neglected Victims

The Paris and Brussels attacks have rightly caused outrage across the globe. However, while millions in the West took to social media to share their grief, there are numerous attacks across the world that go largely unreported in the mainstream media.

NIGERIA – Over 80 killed, children burned to death

On January 30, Boko Haram terrorists killed 86 people after they attacked a village in northeast Nigeria. The assault took place on the outskirts of the city of Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of the Islamist militant group. Citing an eyewitness who managed to survive the attack, AP reported that Boko Haram extremists firebombed huts. A survivor said that he had heard the screams of children burning to death.

There is a real bias against media coverage of terrorist attacks in Africa, and especially in Nigeria,” explained Max Abrahms, assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston,. “I think many people would be surprised to know how much killing power the main terrorist group Boko Haram has,” he said, adding that if such attacks were carried out against people in European or North American countries, “there would be much more media coverage.”

IRAQ – 29 dead after ISIS suicide bomber strikes football match

Iraq is doing its best to try and return to some semblance of normality following the violence that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has brought to parts of the country. However, just three days after the Brussels attacks, at least 29 people were killed at a football match south of the capital, Baghdad. Earlier in March, an IS attack killed 60 people when a truck rigged with explosives slammed into a security checkpoint near the southern Iraqi city of Hilla.

PAKISTAN – Easter suicide bomb kills 70

Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for Sunday’s suicide blast outside a public park in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 70 people and injured more than 280, many of whom were women and children.  “The targets were Christians,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the faction, said, threatening that more attacks in the region would follow. This was Pakistan's deadliest attack since the December 2014 massacre of 134 school children at a military-run academy in the city of Peshawar

SYRIA – ISIS massacres dozens in morning rush hour

On February 21, a series of explosions rocked a district of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 83 people. Two suicide bombers, who were linked to Islamic State, carried out the attack. The first explosion was a car bomb that targeted a busy school street in the Sayeda Zeinab district during rush hour. The blast was followed by two explosions allegedly carried out by suicide bombers wearing explosive belts, and targeted the crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy. he attacks claimed the lives of at least 83 people.

LEBANON – ISIS strike Shiite stronghold a day before Paris attacks

A day before the Paris attacks, two suicide bombers struck in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing at least 43 people, with a further 240 people injured. Islamic State claimed responsibility, with members of the militant group blowing up a motorbike with explosives in the middle of a street. The first blast took place outside a Shiite Mosque, while a second blast, also in the early evening, occurred near a bakery. A second bomb reportedly went off seven minutes later as passers-by tried to help those injured in the initial blast.