Deadly terrorist attacks on the West soared by 650 per cent in 2015, statistics released this week reveal.
The shocking rise in OECD member countries is despite a 10 per cent fall in deaths from terrorism globally. The Global Terrorism Index 2016 was released by the Institute for Economics and Peace on Wednesday and said the drop in the total number of deaths is the first fall since 2010.
"This decline in terrorism deaths is mainly attributed to a weakened Boko Haram and ISIL in both Nigeria and Iraq due to the military operations against them," said the report.
"However expanded activities by both of these groups in other countries is posing new threats in other parts of the world."
Despite the overall fall in deaths a record number of countries have recorded their highest levels of terrorism in the last 16 years. This was largely because the number of people killed by terrorism in Niger, Cameroon and Chad increased by over 157 percent in 2015.
The number of deaths in OECD countries rose from 77 in 2014 to 577 in 2015.
The report pointed to a "complex global picture" where 76 countries improved their score according to the index while terror attacks in 53 countries worsened. The report pointed out that as military efforts have affected terror groups in their home countries, they have changed their focus to "lone wolf" attacks overseas.
"While the weakening of ISIL and Boko Haram in their central areas of operations in Iraq and Nigeria is positive, this change has coincided with two key negative trends which have driven up terrorism in the rest of the world," the report said.
"The first is ISIL's shift in tactics to transnational terrorism, not just to other parts of the Middle East but to Europe as well. The second key negative trend is Boko Haram's extension into neighbouring West African countries, which has led to Cameroon and Niger rising to 13th and 16th in the GTI."
It added: "ISIL's role in this increase was significant as more than half of the 577 deaths were in connection to the group.
"The attacks by ISIL in Paris, Brussels and in Turkey's capital Ankara, were amongst the most devastating in the history of these countries and reflect a disturbing return of the transnational group-based terrorism more associated with al-Qaeda before and immediately after September 11."
