Nigeria ranked as third most terrorised country in the world behind Iraq and Afghanistan

NIGERIA has been officially ranked as the third most terrorised country in the world according to the findings of the 2015 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) which reviewed the security situations in 162 nations worldwide last year.

 

In the recently published survey, Nigeria moved up to third from fourth last year, only ranking as being safer than Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan and Syria are ranked fourth and fifth just behind Nigeria to complete the top five most terrorised countries in the world.

 

Apart from Nigeria, the only African countries high up on the list are Somalia and Libya which occupied the eighth and ninth positions respectively. According to the report, released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, Boko Haram overtook Isis in 2014 to become the most deadly terrorist organisation in the world.

 

Furthermore, the 2015 GTI report observed that Boko Haram, in 2014, was also able to spread outside Nigeria to launch two deadly attacks in neighbouring Cameroon, killing 530 people. Cameroon, the report said, did not record any death from terrorism between 2000 and 2013 until Boko Haram struck in 2014.

 

 Although the GTI report was published in November 2015, the data used in producing it were gathered last year. It is likely that things may have since changed due to Isis stepping up its operations in several countries this year, especially Syria.