Nigeria, Libya, Somalia lead as terrorism cost Africa $13 billion in 2019-Report
London, Nov. 28, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Africa’s share of the global economic impact of terrorism increased astronomically from 3.1% in 2007 to 49.2% in 2019. Nigeria, Libya, Somalia and Mali suffered the largest impact on the continent by concentrating, alone, 86% of the economic damage caused by terrorism.
The economic impact of terrorism in Africa was $ 13 billion in 2019, according to the 2020 edition of the Global Terrorism Index , compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank headquartered in Sydney, Australia, in collaboration with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.
⭕ The 2020 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is now available.
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The report reveals that the economic impact of terrorism in Africa has increased fifteen-fold since 2007. The region’s share in the global economic impact of terrorism has thus increased from 3.1% in 2007 to 49.2% in 2019. Globally, this impact is estimated at $ 26.4 billion.
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Over the past decade (2007 – 2019), terrorism has cost the African continent $ 171.7 billion. However, the report says, “This is a very conservative estimate and would be much higher if the costs of lost business investment, tourism, lost informal economic activity, additional security spending, counterterrorism and refugees or internally displaced persons could be included ”.
Four African countries considered to be the epicenter of terrorism in the region suffered the majority of the economic impact between 2007 and 2019. It is mainly Nigeria which suffers the greatest impact on the continent with an estimated cost of around $ 142 billion during this period.
Next come Libya (about $ 4.9 billion), Somalia (about $ 1.16 billion), and Mali (about $ 1.13 billion).
These four countries alone account for about 86.8% (compared to about 8.3% for the rest of the continent) of the economic impact of terrorism in Africa over the period from 2007 to 2019, or about $ 149 billion, indicates the Global Terrorism Index 2020.
