Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political approach. Legislation has been set up by lawmakers to fight terrorism in France.
CBC News
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...
reported in December 2018 that the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in France since 2015 was 249, with the number of wounded at 928. Within the European Union, France is the most affected country with recent data showcasing a total of 82 Islamist attacks and 332 deaths from 1979 to 2021.
History
Islamic terrorism
Right-wing terrorism
List of significant terrorist incidents inside France
List of international terrorist incidents with significant French casualties
*6 French nationals died as a result of the Kouré shooting in
Niger
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Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
on 15 January 2016.
*4 French nationals died and seven were injured as a result of the
Bardo National Museum attack
On 18 March 2015, two militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, and an additional victim died ten days later. Aro ...
in
Tunisia
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, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
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, capital = Tunis
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Marrakesh
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
Aleg
Aleg is the capital of the Brakna Region, Mauritania. It is located at .
Background
The town includes the village of 'Elb Jmel
Brakna ( ar, ولاية البراكنة) is a region in south-west Mauritania. Its capital is Aleg. Other major c ...
in
Mauritania
Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
on 12 October 2002.
*4 French nationals died as a result of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
.
Foiled attacks
In 2015, a 26-year-old Moroccan man known as a member of the radical Islamist movement attempted to open fire with an
AK47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms de ...
assault rifle while on a high speed train one hour from Paris. He was quickly subdued by three United States servicemen who were on holiday. See:
2015 Thalys train attack
On 21 August 2015, a man opened fire on a Thalys train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris. Four people were injured, including the assailant. French, American and British passengers confronted the attacker and subdued him when his rifle jammed. ...
Towards the end of March 2016, police arrested a Paris citizen named Reda Kriket, and upon searching his apartment, they discovered five assault rifles, a number of handguns, and an amount of chemical substances that could be used to make explosives.
Kriket was convicted
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in absen ...
Under French law, any grave act of violence committed with intent "to seriously disturb public order through intimidation or terror", is an act of terrorism; the public prosecutor decides which cases will be investigated as acts of terrorism. Writing in
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
attorney Gilles-William Goldnadel characterized the public prosecutor's decision not to investigate a crime, Murder of Sarah Halimi as terrorism, as "purely and simply ideological", asserting that the killer, who recited verses form the Quran before breaking into an apartment and murdering a Jewish woman, "had the profile of a radical Islamist, and yet somehow there is a resistance to call a spade a spade". Sarah Halimi's murder was heard by neighbors in her building and in neighboring building over an extended period of time. Neighbors also saw the killer throw his victim from the balcony of her home, and heard the killer praying aloud after the murder. In September, 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the murder as an "
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
" hate crime.
According to Jean-Charles Brisard, director of the French think tank Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, "It needs to have a certain degree of willingness to disrupt the French public order."
Terrorism in the European Union
history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements (separating countries), while other acts have been related to politics (including anarchism, far-right and far-left extremism), religious extremis ...
*
List of Islamist terrorist attacks
The following is a list of Islamist terrorist attacks.
1940s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2001-2010 2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011-2020 2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
...
*
ISIL-related terror attacks in France
ISIL-related terrorist attacks in France refers to the terrorist activity of the Islamic State in France, including attacks committed by Islamic State-inspired lone wolves. The French military operation Opération Sentinelle has been ongoing in F ...
List of massacres in France
The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in France (numbers may be approximate):
Celtic Gaul
Roman Gaul
Merovingian Francia
Carolingian Francia
Capetian France
Valois France
Bourbon France
Revolutionary and Imperia ...
*
Jean-François Ricard
Jean-François Ricard (born 14 July 1956) is a French magistrate, and since 25 June 2019 the first prosecutor of the National Terrorism Prosecution Office (; PNAT) a '' parquet'' for the prosecution of terrorism in France.
Early life and education ...
(born 1956), prosecutor of the National Terrorism Prosecution Office for the prosecution of terrorism in France
References
{{November 2015 Paris attacks
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...