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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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carried out in certain other places such as Tunis
were European. Although not exhaustive, the
following list amply illustrates this point: Boko
Haram perpetrated various attacks in Nigeria
and neighbouring states between January and
July that left 300 dead; on March 7 the militant
group Al-Mourabitoun killed five people in
Bamako, Mali; a March 18 attack on the Bardo
Museum in Tunis claimed 25 lives; an April 2 Al-
Shabaab attack on the campus of the University
of Garissa in Kenya caused 147 deaths; attacks
perpetrated on June 26 resulted in numerous
fatalities in Sousse, Tunis (39), Kuwait (25) and
Lego, Somalia (50); 90 died on October 11 in
Ankara, Turkey; a Russian Metrojet plane carry-
ing 224 was shot down on October 31; and an-
other attack in San Bernardino, California on
December 2 claimed 14 lives. To this gristly list
one must add the innumerable attacks carried
out in war zones within countries such as Iraq,
Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. The
carnage continued throughout the first three
months of 2016 with attacks in Pathankot, India
on January 2; Libya January 7; Istanbul on Janu-
ary 12 and March 19, Jakarta on January 14,
Burkina Faso on January 15, the Sinai in Egypt
on January 21; Somalia on January 15 and 22;
Nigeria on January 30; Ankara on February 17
and March 13; and Ivory Coast on March 13.
According to IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insur-
gency Centre, more than 18,000 attacks that
collectively left approximately 30,000 people
dead and more than 36,000 wounded were
perpetrated in 2015. Of the total recorded, IS
was responsible for 3,300 (50 % more than in
2014) and the Al-Nusra Front, AQ’s affiliate in
Syria, responsible for 550. The majority of these
attacks were carried out in Syria (5,500) and
Iraq (3,800) and in many cases were suicide mis-
sions. A number so staggeringly high makes
it difficult to pay attention to few beyond our
personal radius of experience. What we are, in
fact, witnessing is an insidious, underground
war in which the targets are always easy victims
and in the majority of instances civilians; a war
that has engulfed the entire world from Nigeria
to Indonesia, against which it is very difficult to
protect oneself: the low-intensity war of the
twenty-first century.
The attacks that are occurring in Europe are
being carried out by small groups of people and
occasionally by isolated individuals who act with
a certain degree of autonomy but under the
general auspices of nerve centres such as AQ –
and, at this particular moment, most especially
IS. They are usually second- or third-generation
European Muslims (all of the authors of attacks
perpetrated in the EU in 2015 had been born in
Europe) who grew up in marginalised neigh-
bourhoods and dabbled in petty crime before
being radicalised by contacts they came across
via the Internet, in certain mosques or while
serving prison terms. Not all of them have been
religious fanatics; some have been motivated by
resentment and hate. Some have lived or fought
in a Middle Eastern country where they under-
went a deeper radicalisation and received train-
ing. Those who have fought for IS in Syria and
Iraq are particularly dangerous.
Conscious of the threat they suppose to Eu-
ropean citizens, the institutions of the EU and
the governments of its Member States (MS) are
implementing (albeit in varying degrees) politi-
cal, economic, law enforcement, intelligence
and military measures intended to neutralise
their effectiveness both on EU territory and
wherever else that jihadism emerges, be it the
Middle East, North Africa or the Sahel. This is a
challenge of colossal dimensions in which Eu-
rope has much, including its freedoms, at stake,
since the fear of fresh attacks has led, for in-
stance, to the cancellation of public festivities