The 2015 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) has ranked Nigeria the third among 162 countries of the world which have been worst hit by terrorist attacks.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, was ranked fourth in 2014.
Going by the latest ranking, Nigeria is only better than two Middle Eastern countries – Iraq and Afghanistan – who were ranked first and second respectively.
Two other Middle East countries, Pakistan and Syria, are ranked fourth and fifth respectively, after Nigeria.
The only African countries closer in ranking to Nigeria are Somalia and Libya which are in the eighth and ninth positions respectively.
France, which recently experienced deadly terrorist attacks that killed about 130 people in Paris, is ranked 36th, same as the United States of America.
“Terrorist attacks are much more lethal in Nigeria than any other country,” the GTI report said.
The report, released on November 16, 2015 by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the Islamist terror group in Nigeria, Boko Haram, overtook ISIL in 2014 to become the most deadly terrorist group in the world.
The Institute for Economics and Peace is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank with offices in Sydney, New York and Mexico City.
The 2015 GTI report said 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, didn’t record any death from terrorism between 2000 and 2013 until Boko Haram struck in 2014.
-Leadership