Daijiworld Media Network - Abu Dhabi (SHP)

Abu Dhabi, Jan 16: The 2019 Global Terrorism Index, presented in a forum here on Wednesday showed that the UAE improved its ranking in the index by coming down to 130th rank among the 163 countries. The terrorism impact in the UAE has been categorised as 'very low'. In the UAE, only two terrorist incidents were reported over the past decade - one in 2010 and another in 2014 - and there were no casualties.

Commenting on the report, Mansour Al Mansouri, director of the UAE National Media Council (NMC) said: "These findings rightly show the UAE as one of the safest countries in the world in terms of a terror threat."

The data showed a 53 per cent reduction since the 2014 attack where over 33,555 were killed. The index published for the seventh year in a row ranks 163 countries across the globe according to the relative impact of terrorism. This takes into account the number of terrorist incidents, deaths caused by terror and the total value of property damage.

However, the results saw three Middle East countries - Iraq, Syria and Yemen - continue in the top 10 positions of the index.

The terrorist group Daesh took over the Taliban as the deadliest terrorist group in the world, accounting for 38 per cent of all terrorist deaths. Afghanistan is the country most affected by terrorism in 2018 followed by Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan, according to the report. The least impacted nations were Belarus, Guinea-Bissau, Oman, The Gambia and North Korea.

During his presentation of the key findings of the index at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of the UAE (FCC), Serge Stroobants, director of Europe and Mena at the Institute of Economics and Peace, said lesser people were now being killed in terrorist activities.

"There have been long-term trends in global terrorism, with deaths caused by terror down by 52 per cent compared to high point of 2014, which saw Daesh and Boko Haram at their peak," said Stroobants attributing the decrease in the deaths to the increase in security measures and cooperation among nations in the fight against terrorism.

Meanwhile, a 320 per cent increase is witnessed in far-right terrorist incidents in the West, with the political ideology being the trigger behind an increased proportion of terror-related activities.

"There has been an increase in far-right terrorism in Western Europe, North America and Oceania for the third consecutive year," said Stroobants.