Somalia has emerged as the nation with maximum risk from a potential terror strike in the latest report published by UK-based global analysts Maplecroft, reports said on Sunday.
The African country which has not had a functional government since the ouster of dictator Saad Bin Baare in 1991 replaces Iraq which has been relegated to third spot behind Pakistan in Terrorism Risk Index.(TRI)
According to Maplecroft, Somalia had suffered 556 terror incidents leaving 1,437 people dead and 3,408 wounded between June 2009 and June 2010.
"Somalia is the most extreme risk country. It has the highest number of deaths from terrorism per population and surpassed Iraq and Afghanistan in the number of fatalities per terrorist attack," it said.
Besides Somalia, Russia and Yemen have been listed in the TRI as nations with a rising terrorist threat perception.
While growing Islamist insurgency in the Russian north Caucasus was attributed for Moscow's increased terror threat, Yemen's dubious distinction stems from the presence of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), local affiliate of the global terror outfit.
It was through the merger of al-Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches that the AQAP took shape in January 2009 and this followed the massive campaign launched by Saudi forces against al-Qaeda, which led to several of its members seeking refuge in neighboring Yemen.
Yemen's emergence as a sanctuary for Islamist terrorism became known after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian youth accused of a botched attempt to blow up an American airliner on last Christmas Day, revealed that he had received training and indoctrination from al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Further confirmation of Yemen's terror links was evidenced by the recent parcel bomb incidents when explosives cleverly hidden inside printer cartridges were found out by airport authorities in Dubai and the UK.
The packages addressed to Synagogues in Boston in the U.S. were reportedly timed to explode over the U.S. East Coast.
The Middle-East country is also the ancestral land of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric known for his radical preachings, who features in the U.S. terror blacklist for suspected links to al-Qaeda.
In marked contrast, the terror threat showed a decline in India and Algeria which fell to 15th and 36th spot respectively.
The most significant change in the rankings though was Greece which jumped 33 places to the 24th spot, which the consultancy points out to violence unleashed by Left-wing radicals.
Pakistan, riven by Islamist insurgency which saw close to 2,000 people getting slaughtered in mindless violence since 2007, moved up to second spot in the revised TRI with neighboring Afghanistan falling behind to fourth place.
A total of 194 countries feature in the list prepared on the basis of the number of terror strikes, their frequency and the likelihood of mass casualties occurring.
Sixteen nations have been listed in the extreme risk category with Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan occupying the first four places followed by Palestinian territories, Colombia, Thailand, Philippines, Yemen and Russia.
However, the main Western economies do not figure in the TRI's high or extreme risk bracket. The United States is ranked 33, France 44 and Britain 46 while Canada is ranked 67 and Germany at 70.
TRI also factors in historical data and is meant as a forward-looking statement.
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April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.