After it recorded a substantial improvement last year, gaining nine places, Morocco is ranked among the MENA countries that deteriorated in the 2019 edition of the Global Terrorism Index, a report conducted by the Institute for Economics and Peace. For the seventh year in a row, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) measured the impact of terrorism in the world through its Global Terrorism Index (GTI). Released earlier this week, the 2019 edition of the index ranks Morocco 92nd out of 163 countries. The Kingdom is listed behind Guatemala and ahead of Senegal. Unlike last year, when it gained nine places, Morocco dramatically deteriorated in the ranking, leaping 40 spots. The performance of the Kingdom was blamed on the terror attack that took place in December 2018 in the country. «Morocco experienced one terrorist attack last year, its first since 2015. Two tourists were killed by Jihadi-inspired extremists who pledged allegiance to ISIL in a video. Previously ISIL had not been present in Morocco», wrote the authors of the report. The annual report is, in fact, based on four main indexes: The total number of terrorist incidents in a given year, the total number of fatalities caused by terrorists in a given year, the total number of injuries in a given year and a measure of the total property damage from terrorist incidents in a given year. Morocco's low ranking blamed on the Imlil murders The Global Terrorism Index puts Morocco in the list of countries that have a «very low» terrorist threat in 2019, while in 2018 it was part of the «no impact» category. According to the authors of the report, «Morocco and Iran were the only two MENA countries to deteriorate», while «the MENA recorded a substantial improvement with 17 countries improving». Meanwhile, the index stressed that «only three countries in the MENA region recorded an increase in deaths (related to terrorism) : Iran, Morocco, and Jordan». Regionally, Morocco ranks second in the Maghreb region, positioned behind Mauritania 138th and ahead of Algeria 57th, Tunisia 51st and Libya 12th. It is worth mentioning that the index has a «composite score in order to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism». In the MENA region, Morocco is ranked fourth, behind Oman 138th, Qatar 133rd and the United Arab Emirates 130th. The countries that are the most impacted by terrorism in the region are Iraq (2nd), Syria (4th) and Yemen (8th). Overall, Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria top the list, while more than 26 countries are ranked 138th as safe countries with no terrorist threats.
