Ojeniyiwale/west-africa-terror-trends-1970-2020

A five-decade journey through the patterns of violence and perseverance in West Africa, told through data. # west-africa-terror-trends-1970-2020 A five-decade journey through the patterns of violence and perseverance in West Africa, told through data. This repository presents a comprehensive data analysis report on terrorist attack patterns across West Africa between 1970 and 2020. The analysis uses a curated subset of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), publicly available on Kaggle, processed in Microsoft Excel. The insights derived are intended for stakeholders in national security, humanitarian response, research, and policy-making. 🧠 Project Objective The goal is to identify trends, perpetrators, and spatial distributions of attacks in the West African region using data from 1970–2020, to inform practical recommendations for security planning and humanitarian efforts. 📌 Key Features Time-based Analysis: Focused on peak years (2011–2020) Country-Specific Trends: Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Ghana, Benin Perpetrator Profiles: Boko Haram, Fulani extremists, separatist groups Attack Methods: Armed assault, bombings, hostage situations Target Entities: Civilians, military, government institutions 🗃 Dataset Source Source: Kaggle - Global Terrorism Database (GTD) Owner: University of Maryland Scope: 1970–2020 (filtered subset) 📈 Visual Highlights The visualizations and dashboards are located in the /dashboards/ folder. Below are the placeholders where they are referenced in the full report: attacks_by_year.png attacks_by_country.png weapon_type_vs_frequency.png city_intensity_table.png Each chart corresponds to a major finding in the full report, enabling quick reference for stakeholders. 📊 Summary of Findings Nigeria accounts for 81% of attacks. Boko Haram responsible for over 2,600 recorded incidents. Private citizens most affected target type. 2018 recorded highest yearly attack count (919). Urban centers (e.g., Maiduguri, Kano) are repeatedly targeted. 🔍 Methodology All analysis was conducted in Microsoft Excel using: Pivot Tables Count and Summary Funct …