Summary:

In February 2024, the Institute for Economics and Peace released their 2024 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) which ranks Tunisia 36 globally in terms of exposure to terrorism, a drop from the prior ranking of 40. This particular index uses a weighted average of incidents, fatalities, injuries, and hostages to produce country scores. 

Tunisia’s terrorism impact score was 2.914 out of 10, dropping from 3.99 in the prior report pointing to a lessening impact of terrorism. Despite the decline in impact of terrorism measured by the index, Tunisia rose in the rankings in the index as other countries marked greater decline in terrorism impact.  

Burkina Faso was ranked first in the index, having the highest impact from terrorism with a score of 8.571. Several dozen countries assessed share a score of 0, indicating essentially no impact from terrorism as measured by the index. 

In terms of neighboring North African countries, Algeria scored slightly lower than Tunisia (Rank: 44, Score: 2.197). Libya also scored slightly lower (Rank: 39, Score: 2.469) while Egypt’s score was notably higher (Rank: 20, Score: 5.221). Morocco was among those countries with a score of 0. 

The index does not take into account many factors that impact terrorism, including disrupted operations or cells, which have been reported recently in Tunisia. Nor does it factor in the condition of terrorism in neighboring countries or regions.  

Outlook:  

Among the tools used to track the impact of terrorism around the world, there is no system that can perfectly capture the state and nature of the threat in each specific country. However, the index provides a snapshot of how terrorist activity and threats are shifting, notably toward the African continent. 

While late 2023 saw a spike in counterterrorism activity by Tunisian security forces, the number of actual attacks and incidents appeared to decline as is reflected in the index.  

Tunisia and North Africa in general will continue to feel the impact of both the economic and political instability that breeds terrorist activity, and the resultant destruction, displacement, and insecurity that stem from a rising terrorist threat. 

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