NAIROBI, Kenya. December 29 -Deaths from terrorism fell to 6,701 in 2022, representing a nine per cent decrease from the prior year, when a total of 7328 deaths were recorded.
This is a decrease of 38 per cent from the peak in 2015, when 10,881 were killed.
According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), attacks also decreased for the first time since 2019, by 28 per cent from 5,463 to 3,955, largely due to a fall in the intensity of conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The report states that terrorist attacks have become more deadly, killing on average 26 per cent more people per attack.
The most lethal attack was on February 2, 2022 in Balochistan Province, Pakistan when Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) bombed and shot at two Frontier Corps buildings in a coordinated attack, killing a total of 195 people
The death rate, according to the report, rose to 1.7 people per attack in 2022, compared to 1.3 deaths per attack in 2021. This is the first increase in the lethality rate in five years.
In Afghanistan, terrorism deaths fell by 866 in 2022, a 58 per cent improvement.
Highest Impact
Afghanistan, with a score of 8.822 remained the country with the highest impact from terrorism for the fourth year, followed by Burkina Faso (8.562) and Somalia (8.463).
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was ranked number 14 with a score of 6.872 while Kenya ranked number 20 with a score of 6.163.
The report indicates the deaths have fallen by over a third since its peak in 2015, with two of the largest decreases occurring in Iraq and Nigeria.
“This was after the Taliban gained control of the government in 2021 and ceased to be classified as a terrorist organization,” the report states.
The report further states that the Balochistan Liberation Army in Pakistan is the fastest growing terrorist organisation and was responsible for 233 deaths in 2022, a ninefold increase.
Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest increase in terrorism deaths in 2022, while South Asia and MENA recorded the largest falls.
The Sahel region -Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal -is the most impacted area of the world, representing 43 per cent of global terrorism deaths.
Also, four of the ten most impacted countries for terrorism in 2022 were in the Sahel region, with Burkina Faso having the largest increase in terrorism deaths, increasing from 759 to 1,135 deaths.
This was followed by Pakistan where terrorism deaths increased from 292 in 2021 to 643 in 2022.
IS and its affiliates remained the world’s deadliest terrorist group in 2022, despite the deaths attributed to the group and its affiliates declining by 16 per cent from 2,194 to 1,833 deaths.
In 2022, the country most affected by IS terrorist attacks was Iraq, recording 183 attacks attributed to the group, a decrease from 344 attacks in 2021.
IS maintained its level of terrorist activity in Syria with approximately the same number of attacks, however these attacks resulted in more terrorism deaths by the group which increased to 344.
The number of countries suffering from terrorism deaths remained roughly the same, with 25 countries recording reductions, while 24 countries recorded increases.
Over 88 per cent of terror attacks, and 98 per cent of deaths, occurred in conflict zones.
The number of countries experiencing deaths has remained constant for the last three years, ranging from 43 in 2020 to 42 in 2022. This is down from the peak of 56 countries in 2015.
Of the 163 countries included in the analysis, nearly three quarters or 121 countries recorded no deaths from terrorism in 2022, the highest number since 2007.
In 2022, the 15 countries most impacted by terrorism were all suffering from conflict.
As the conflict in Syria subsided, IS and its affiliates have shifted their focus to sub-Saharan Africa, and specifically the Sahel region.
According to the World Risk Poll, Afghanistan and Burkina Faso are the countries most concerned by war and terrorism, with 62 per cent and 30 per cent of respondents selecting war and terrorism as the greatest threat to their daily safety, respectively.
In total there were 79 attacks in Europe in 2022. Ten of these attacks occurred in Turkey.
Ideology continues to be the most prominent motivation behind terrorism in the West. There were 15 ideologically-motivated attacks, compared with just three religiously-motivated attacks.
Last year was the first year since 2014 that the UK has not had a death from terrorism, while Canada recorded no attacks or deaths for the first time since 2013.
Though terrorism deaths increased in the US in 2022, the country recorded a significant improvement in its GTI score, recording its best score since 2011,
Attacks in Syria almost halved in 2022, from 354 in 2021 to 197; while terrorism deaths remained relatively static at 447 in 2022.
The GTI report provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last decade. The calculation of the GTI score considers not only deaths but also incidents, hostages and injuries from terrorism, weighted over a five-year period.
The GTI does not include acts of state repression and violence by state actors and, as such, acts committed by the Taliban are no longer included in the scope of the report since they took control of the government.
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