For the last two decades, the global war on terror has been associated with the Middle East. As of today, Africa is the strong hold for more terrorist than any other place in the world. According to Verisk Maplecroft’s Terrorism Index, out of the ten highest rated countries for terrorism 7 of them are in Africa.
If you’re wondering how the Terror Index calculates its data, it assesses the number of Terrorist events and the magnitude of the event in 198 countries based on the number of fatalities each year. The outreach and potency of these terrorist groups are expediently growing by the day. The Index defines a terrorist attack as “a politically motivated, violent act carried out in pursuit of a political objective and distinguished by its capacity to inspire fear or shock”.
Five countries received the lowest possible score of 0.00 out of 10.00 in the Index: Burkina Faso, Mali and Somalia in Africa, alongside Afghanistan and Syria. The rest of the top ten comprises, in descending order: Cameroon, Mozambique, Niger, DRC and Iraq. Nigeria is ranked in 11th position. In addition to the 7 countries in the topo 10, Africa has seen a serve increase in terrorist activity in another 8-10 countries.
In most instances, companies are almost wholly reliant on governments to guarantee the security of their assets, so human rights violations by security forces can damage the international reputations of the firms involved. Riskovery solutions advised companies to invest more time and energy into identifying emerging threats and adopting precautionary measures to mitigate against future security risks because of the growing number of terrorist hotspots in Africa.
It seems unlikely that the number and intensity of attacks will fall over the course of this year. Raymakers said: “As the economic fallout from COVID-19 empties government coffers, governments will struggle to implement the comprehensive counterterrorism strategies required to contain these security threats.”
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Riskovery doesn’t wait until an incident occurs to look for a solution. Our Travel Risk Management Application proactively collects data through its proprietary application to ensure when an incident occurs, employees have the greatest chance of receiving the support they need to get home. As soon as an alert is received, Riskovery immediately begins to reestablish communication. Simultaneously, while communication is being re-established, the team analyzes data to determine where your team members are, if they are safe, and alternate methods for re-contacting. Team Riskovery takes proactive steps to provide essential support to stranded team members.