Deaths from terrorism decline for fifth year in a row

In what can be described as good tidings against the backdrop of Covid-19 outbreak, terrorism deaths had declined globally, for the fifth consecutive year in 2019, according to Global Terrorism Index 2020 report, released by the Australia-based Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).

According to the IEP annual report, Afghanistan remained the worst-affected country by terrorism, while Pakistan is ranked seventh. Seven of the top-10 affected nations come from the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

“The 2020 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) has found that deaths from terrorism fell for the fifth consecutive year since peaking in 2014. The number of deaths has now decreased by 59% since 2014 to 13,826,” said the report, entitled ‘Vision for Humanity’.

“The largest decreases in deaths occurred in Afghanistan and Nigeria, however they are still the only two countries to have experienced more than 1,000 deaths from terrorism,” it said, adding that conflict remained the primary driver of terrorism, with over 96% of deaths from terrorism in 2019.

The fall in deaths was also reflected in country scores, with 103 improving compared to 35 that deteriorated. This is the highest number of countries to record a year-on-year improvement since the inception of the index.

The 10 worst affected countries are: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines. It said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for 73 deaths and 30 attacks in Pakistan as of 2019.

The annual report aims at comprehensively analysing the impact of terrorism on 163 countries, covering 99.7% of the world population. It said the global economic impact of terrorism cost in 2019 was $16.4 billion — 25% lower than the war expenditures of 2018.

Despite the overall fall in the global impact, the report said, terrorism remains a significant and serious threat in many countries. “As we enter a new decade we are seeing new threats of terrorism emerge, said Steve Killelea, Executive Chairman of IEP.

“The rise of the far-right in the West and the deteriorations in the Sahel are prime examples. Additionally, as seen in the recent attacks in France and Austria, many smaller groups sympathetic to ISIL [Islamic State] philosophies are still active,” Killelea added.

According to the report, Taliban remained the world’s deadliest terrorist group in 2019; however, terrorist deaths attributed to the group declined by 18%. “Despite the decrease in activity from ISIL in the Middle East and North Africa, ISIL’s affiliate groups remain active across the world,” it added.

Since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020, the report noted a decline in both incidents and deaths from terrorism in most regions in the world. However, it added, the pandemic was likely to present a new counter-terrorism challenge.