Nigeria Ranked Third Most Terrorised Nation in the World.

A global report released yesterday says Nigeria remains one of the three most terrorised nations in the world.

The 2017 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) also indicates that killing of innocent people by the Boko Haram insurgents in the North east has decreased by 80 per cent. According to the document, Nigeria got the same ranking in 2015 and 2016. It was ranked fourth in 2014.

The Global Terrorism Index, which is in its fifth edition, is published annually by an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank organisation, Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). It monitors and measures the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, which covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.

The report says Iraq and Afghanistan have not had their ranking changed in the past three years and the two countries are ranked first and second in the 2017 GTI.

Among the first 10 countries that suffered the greatest impact of terrorism in 2016, according to the report, are Syria, fourth; Pakistan, fifth; Yemen, sixth; and Somalia, seventh. India, Turkey, and Libya are ranked eighth, ninth and 10th.

The report reads in part: “Where terrorism deaths attributed to Boko Haram decreased by 80 per cent, Nigeria recorded the biggest decrease in terrorism with 3,100 fewer people killed compared to 2015.

“This reflects both the success of the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram as well as fractures within the group.

“Boko Haram’s decline also contributed to significant reductions in deaths in neighbouring countries with Cameroon, Chad and Niger collectively recording a 75 per cent reduction in deaths or over 1,000 fewer deaths.”

Boko Haram, which was the deadliest terrorist group in 2014, according to the report, and recorded 6,700 deaths, is now the third deadliest, with its total number of attributable deaths dropping to 1,079 in 2016.