12 capital cities facing “extreme” terrorism risks; potential to threaten business and supply chain continuity: Verisk Maplecroft

An assessment of 1,300 of the world’s most important commercial hubs and urban centres indicates terrorist attacks pose an “extreme risk” to populations and business in the capital cities of 12 countries, with Baghdad being the world’s highest risk urban centre, U.K.-based Verisk Maplecroft reported Wednesday.

The countries in question include the strategic markets of Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan, note figures from Verisk Maplecroft.

The company reports that based on the intensity and frequency of attacks in the 12 months following February 2014 – combined with the number and severity of incidents in the previous five years – six cities in Iraq top the ranking. Over that period, Baghdad experienced “380 terrorist attacks resulting in 1,141 deaths and 3,654 wounded, making it the world’s highest risk urban centre, followed by Mosul, Al Ramadi, Ba’qubah, Kirkuk and Al Hillah,” the press release adds.

In all, Verisk Maplecroft’s new Global Alerts Dashboard – an “online mapping and data portal that logs and analyses every reported terrorism incident down to levels of 100m² worldwide” – categorizes 64 cities as “extreme risk.”

Outside of Iraq, other capital cities rated “extreme risk” include Kabul, Afghanistan (13), Mogadishu, Somalia (14), Sana’a, Yemen (19) and Tripoli, Libya (48). “However, with investment limited in conflict and post-conflict locations, it is the risk posed by terrorism in the primary cities of strategic economies, such as Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan that has the potential to threaten business and supply chain continuity,” the statement adds.

“Visibility of the sub-national differences in terrorism levels should be an imperative for multinational organizations looking to understand and price the risks to assets, employees and supply chains,” Charlotte Ingham, principal analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, advises in the statement.

In Europe, Paris (97) “has experienced one of the steepest rises in the ranking, reflecting the severity of the terrorist attack in January 2015 that left 17 people dead,” Verisk Maplecroft reports.

“The risk level in Paris is representative of a wider trend for Western countries, including Belgium, Canada and Australia, where the level of risk in key urban centres is substantially higher than elsewhere in the country, in part due to the significant PR value attached to such high profile targets by militant Islamist groups,” the company adds.

GAD offers monitoring and alerts covering key operational and supply chain disruptions via a mapping and data platform, with a view to providing time-sensitive, qualified alerts that allow users to identify and prioritize sites that pose the highest risk of supply chain disruption or potential damage to corporate reputation.

Baghdad tops #terrorism risk ranking of 1300 cities http://t.co/ZyzM4ksvpK #Iraq #Nigeria #Egypt #Kenya #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/AIci6ve8v2

— Verisk Maplecroft (@MaplecroftRisk) May 20, 2015