The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) headquartered in Sydney, Australia, has rated the Sultanate as the country that is least exposed to terrorist attacks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

In its Global Peace Index 2020 report, the Australia-based institute said that the number of terrorism victims worldwide stood at 13,826 in 2019 and that 63 countries witnessed, at least, one terrorist attack last year; which is also the least since 2013.

The worst-hit region of the world was the sub-Saharan zone in Africa, which comprises seven out of ten countries in the world that had the largest number of victims, according to the report.

The MENA region recorded a substantial improvement in 2019, with 18 countries improving, while only Yemen recorded a deterioration in their final Global Terrorism Index (GTI) score.

This is the fourth year in a row that the region has improved.

The report indicated that North American and Western European countries saw an upsurge in the number of victims – 89 in 2019 – which marks an increase of 250 per cent since 2014.

Click here to read the full report.