Terrorism deaths jump 17% in 2020 in spite of drop in attacks since pandemic
10 March, 2021
Deaths from terrorism experience risen more than 17 per cent all over the world despite a good reduction in the number of attacks, protection consultancy Janes said.
Statistics from the group display a rise of 2,543 deaths from terrorist activity found in 2020 from 2019.
Using data via the 2020 Global Attack Index, Janes said there have been 17,122 deaths coming from attacks by non-point out armed groupings, in a 17.4 % increase from 2019.
However the number of attacks reduced by 3.7 % through the same period to a total of 13,310 in 2020.
“The entire downturn in attacks can be largely attributed to the July ceasefire in Ukraine’s Donbass region, which resulted in attacks dropping by 1 / 3 in the high-tempo separatist conflict,” said Matthew Henman, head of terrorism and insurgency at Janes.
“This decrease masked major shifts in violence in Afghanistan and key conflict zones in sub-Saharan Africa, though, where attacks and resultant fatalities rose drastically.”
Janes said there have been 2,373 episodes by terrorist groups in Afghanistan in 2020, which makes it the most dangerous country for the quantity recorded.
It was also the country with terrorism-related deaths, recording 6,617 last year, that was up 15.9 per cent from 2019.
“The fatality total accounted for more than one-third [38.6 per cent] of all non-militant fatalities worldwide, and was greater than the cumulative total of the next six deadliest countries,” Mr Henman said.
“Across 2020, the most attacks were documented in Afghanistan, as the country, coupled with Syria and Ukraine, cumulatively accounted for over fifty percent of most attacks worldwide.”
Janes said the increasing violence in Afghanistan was first driven "almost exclusively" by Taliban attacks on secureness forces.
“The Taliban further challenged the Afghan state for control of territory across the year, as the group pushed to degrade security force functions and further reinforce its position for nascent peace talks with the federal government,” Mr Henman said.
“Attacks found in Syria and Ukraine decreased by 29.1 % and 36.5 % respectively between 2019 and 2020, both offsetting the significant rise in Afghanistan and somewhat accounting for the entire reduction in attacks."
Mr Henman said there was a 50 % upsurge in attacks recorded found in Iraq, rising to 1 1,466 in 2020.
“The increase in attacks in Iraq was largely driven by ISIS's Iraq province, which accounted for half of most recorded ISIS attacks worldwide in 2020," he said.
"Low-level asymmetric functions by the group rose found in tempo over the year, together with periodic mass-casualty episodes, underlining the slow but stable resurgence of the group following its territorial defeat found in Iraq in November 2017."
Janes's data implies that episodes by ISIS rose 2.9 per cent. It stated that indicated "a degree of stabilisation" after consecutive years of reducing attack totals since 2016.
It said deaths from these episodes grew by 16.8 %.
“The rise in fatalities was principally a rsulting consequence mass-casualty functions conducted by ISIS's West Africa province in the Lake Chad basin and the tri-border Sahel area,” Mr Henman said.
Janes also recorded a substantial increase in businesses by ISIS's Central Africa province in north-east Mozambique, where hometown militants continued to obstacle the security forces for control of main urban and commercial spots found in Cabo Delgado province.
There were also double the quantity of attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the previous year.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com