Africa has emerged as the world’s most active theatre of terrorism, with more than two-thirds of Islamic State (ISIS) activity taking place on the continent, according to a new report by the US House Committee on Homeland Security.The report, released in lieu of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, said seven of the 10 countries with the highest number of terrorism-related deaths were in Africa, with five concentrated in the Sahel.It warned that the geographic shift in jihadist activity was creating new challenges for US counterterrorism efforts, with intelligence coverage and resources remaining uneven across the continent.The report, titled “25th Anniversary Report: National Security Improvements and the Domestic Threat Landscape 25 Years After 9/11/01,” assesses how the US security landscape has changed since the attacks and identifies emerging threats facing the country.“While terrorism has shifted geographically, it has also evolved operationally,” the committee said, pointing to the growing role of decentralised attacks and individuals radicalised without formal links to terrorist organisations.According to the report, more than two-thirds of ISIS’s global activity during the first half of 2025 occurred in Africa, citing data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project. It also cited the Global Terrorism Index, which found that ISIS and its affiliates were responsible for 1,805 deaths across 22 countries.The committee said the concentration of jihadist violence in Africa had exposed intelligence gaps and strained global counterterrorism resources.The shift is particularly significant because US counterterrorism policy has historically focused heavily on the Middle East, while the African theatre presents different challenges, including fragile governments, limited intelligence collection and uneven information-sharing capabilities.The report warned that extremist networks operating in Africa were increasingly using migration routes, smuggling networks and online platforms to extend their influence beyond the continent.The committee also said the nature of terrorism itself had changed since 9/11.Rather than relying exclusively on hierarchical organisations such as al-Qaida, extremist movements increasingly seek to inspire individuals to carry out attacks independently.The report said ISIS had encouraged supporters to launch attacks wherever they lived, reducing the need for direct command and control.It pointed to the January 2025 ISIS-inspired attack in New Orleans and the arrest of two US citizens the following month over an alleged ISIS-inspired plot in Michigan as examples of the changing threat.The number of radicalised young people with no formal affiliation to extremist organisations has also increased by more than 300% over the past decade, according to the report.Online propaganda, encrypted communications and social media have helped accelerate radicalisation while reducing the need for formal terrorist networks.The committee said this required a shift from an “organisation-centric” approach to counterterrorism towards prevention based on individual behaviour.The report also said the definition of the terrorist threat had widened considerably.The US has expanded its Foreign Terrorist Organisation framework to include violent cartels and other transnational criminal organisations, while also designating ideologically diverse extremist groups.The committee said this reflected a broader change in which terrorism, organised crime and foreign influence increasingly overlap.It cited Iran as an example of a state actor using criminal and terrorist proxies in overseas operations.The committee also warned that terrorism was increasingly intersecting with cyber capabilities.Terrorist organisations, criminal networks and hostile states are exploiting encrypted platforms, social media and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, drones and 3D-printed weapons, it said.AI could help defenders analyse large amounts of security data and identify suspicious activity, but the same technology could also allow malicious actors to conduct reconnaissance, social engineering and vulnerability research faster and at greater scale.The report said the next phase of terrorism would be shaped as much by digital platforms and algorithms as by physical safe havens and battlefields.
