Terrorism in South Africa

The risk of terrorist attacks in South Africa over the past years can be classified as almost insignificant. Compared to other countries here are only quite a few incedents. Over the past 5 years a total number of 87 terrorist incidents has been recorded, in which 54 people have been killed and 61 injured.

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Most frequent attack targets in South Africa

(2013 to 2017)

Target	Attacks	Killed	Injured
Private citizens	40	28	15
Government	32	19	6
Business	6	4	2
Religious institutions	3	1	5
Journalists & Media	2	0	1
Transportation	2	2	32
Military	1	0	0
Educational institution	1	0	0

Most affected regions

(2013 to 2017)

Region	Attacks	Killed	Injured
KwaZulu-Natal	42	37	14
Western Cape	14	8	32
Free State	9	0	0
Eastern Cape	7	7	2
Limpopo	4	0	4
Gauteng	3	0	5
Northern Cape	3	1	1
North West	2	1	0
Cape Town	1	0	0
Mpumalanga	1	0	2

Terrorist organisations in South Africa

Organisation	Attacks	Killed	Injured	Hostages
Economic Freedom Fighters	7	0	0	0
Ses'khona Peoples' Rights Movement	1	0	0	0

All information sourced from the "National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism" (START) and its Global Terrorism Database. An act of terrorism is concidered every incident which is aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal, but not for pure profit motives. In addition these incidents must not be legitimized by warfare activities, listet in the Geneva Conventions of 1949.