Current worldwide threat levels and high-risk zones — which regions and countries are elevated, why, and what it means on the ground for operators.
The Home Secretary has announced a review led by Sir Stephen Lovegrove and expanded police support to former MPs, peers and party spokespeople, after the murder of Ann Widdecombe. The same statement set out Iran-linked state threats; the national threat level was not changed.
The national level is unchanged at severe and Northern Ireland at substantial. The week's development is a Home Office consultation on tightening controls on poisons and explosives precursors, partly in response to the Southport Inquiry.
The national level has been severe since 30 April and Northern Ireland has been substantial since March 2024. Neither moved this week, and the more useful point for operators is what the second figure does not cover.
The Security Council is scheduled to hold a thematic counter-terrorism meeting on 11 September, marking 25 years since the 2001 attacks on New York, while the UK national threat level remains SEVERE.
The UK national terrorism threat level stands at SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely, while the threat to Northern Ireland from Northern Ireland-related terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL, meaning an attack is likely. For protective teams that is the standing baseline for posture at crowded places, iconic sites and principal venues.
The UK national terrorism threat level remains SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely, where the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised it from SUBSTANTIAL on 30 April. The Northern Ireland-related threat level in Northern Ireland sits at SUBSTANTIAL. For protective teams it is the standing posture, not any single incident, that shapes venue and event planning.
The FCDO keeps Pakistan on a high terrorism footing, with regular attacks in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Quetta. Planning notes for teams with travel or tasking in-country.
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The UN-backed force meant to break the gangs' grip on Port-au-Prince has around 1,000 of its 5,550 personnel on the ground and is not expected to reach full strength until October. The Security Council takes its 90-day look this month.
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The al-Qaeda-linked blockade that choked the capital eased early in 2026, then JNIM reimposed it in late April. Mali imports about 95 per cent of its fuel by road, and the capital is exposed again.
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The UN-backed force is authorised at 5,550 but has roughly 1,000 personnel deployed, and will not reach full strength until October. Gangs still hold up to 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince.
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JNIM's blockade of Mali's fuel imports has choked the capital since September 2025 and remains active. The junta moves fuel by armed convoy under Russian and Turkish support, but the corridors stay contested. Bamako and its overland routes are high-risk.
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The US House Foreign Affairs Committee holds a hearing today on Haiti's Gang Suppression Force. The force has a base and early wins, but gangs still control most of Port-au-Prince and the mandate is a long way from filled. Haiti remains a no-go for all but hardened, specialist operations.
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The Kenya-led mission is gone, its replacement stands at roughly 1,000 of a mandated 5,550 it will not reach until October, and Port-au-Prince is still contested. The Security Council takes stock this month.
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JNIM's fuel blockade has moved from choking supply to knocking out power and water in the capital, while a joint militant and separatist ambush cut up an army convoy near Anefis. The state's grip is slipping on two fronts.
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The Security Council takes its 90-day briefing this month with the GSF at roughly 1,000 of a planned 5,550 and gangs still holding most of the capital. Full strength is not expected before October.
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JNIM's fuel blockade has held since September, and the capital is supplied only in armed convoys. Fuel is the single point of failure for anyone operating in or around Bamako.
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JNIM's fuel blockade of Bamako is holding, with supply reaching the capital only in heavily escorted convoys and militant offensives renewed this month. Fuel remains the single point of failure for any movement plan.
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The UN Security Council takes its quarterly Haiti briefing this month with the Gang Suppression Force around 1,000 of a planned 5,550 and full strength not expected before October.
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Open-source reporting indicates JNIM's fuel blockade of Bamako has loosened — convoys are moving and daily life is resuming. The relief is fragile, unexplained, and Western travel guidance has not softened.
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The Security Council takes its quarterly Haiti briefing this month with the Gang Suppression Force still around 1,000 of a planned 5,550, full capacity not expected before October, and the humanitarian appeal underfunded.
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The UN Security Council takes its 90-day Haiti briefing this month with the Gang Suppression Force still around 1,000 of an authorised 5,550, and full strength not expected until October. BINUH logged 1,642 people killed in the first quarter alone.
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JNIM's blockade has cut the roads that carry almost all of Mali's fuel, burning more than 300 tankers and forcing the army to convoy supplies into Bamako under guard. The squeeze now reaches Mali's neighbours and the wider Sahel.
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The UN Security Council takes its 90-day briefing on Haiti this month, with the Secretary-General's report due mid-July. The Gang Suppression Force has around 1,000 personnel against an authorised ceiling of 5,550 and is not expected to reach full capacity until October. The latest casualty figures are stark.
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JNIM's blockade of Bamako, running since September 2025, is choking not just Mali but its neighbours. Fuel now moves only in guarded convoys; the military escorted 940 trucks between Kayes and Bamako in one late-June week. Ports in Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire are counting the losses.
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The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force has around 1,000 personnel on the ground in Haiti and won't reach full strength until October. UN figures record 1,642 people killed in the first quarter alone. Port-au-Prince remains an extreme-risk environment with kidnap the standing threat.
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JNIM's blockade of Mali's fuel imports, running since September, has destroyed more than 300 tankers and repeatedly darkened the capital. The army escorts convoys through, but the al-Qaeda affiliate still controls the tempo. Anyone with Mali exposure should treat movement and resupply as compromised.
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The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force is running at roughly 1,000 of an authorised 5,550 personnel, with full capacity not expected until October. Gangs still hold up to 90 percent of Port-au-Prince, and the Security Council takes its 90-day briefing this month.
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JNIM's fuel blockade on Bamako holds into a tenth month. Kayes and Nioro are cut off, the junta has put a named general in charge of pushing escorted convoys through, and the capital runs on rationing prioritised for the military and government.
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The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force has troops in Port-au-Prince but is running at roughly a fifth of its mandated strength, with full capacity not expected until October. Gangs still hold about 90% of the capital as the Security Council takes up Haiti this month.
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JNIM's blockade of Mali's fuel routes has choked the capital since late 2025 — more than 300 tankers destroyed, 95% of the country's fuel trucked in, and Western governments long since advising their nationals to leave. A logistics siege with one point of failure.
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JNIM's blockade on fuel convoys into landlocked Mali has choked the capital for months. Over 300 tankers destroyed, 95% of fuel trucked in, and Western governments have already told nationals to leave. This is a slow-motion collapse operators should be planning around now.
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The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force has begun deploying to Port-au-Prince, but with roughly a thousand of a mandated 5,550 in place, gangs still hold most of the capital. Full strength isn't expected until October.
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The week of mourning is over and the war has restarted, but the man proclaimed Iran's new leader has not been seen since February. A vacuum at the top is its own risk factor.
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The week-long state funeral ends today with burial at the Imam Reza shrine, after an Iraq leg that drew millions through Najaf and Karbala. Iraq stays at the top of the travel-advisory scale as the Gulf war resumes around the mourning.
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Iraq is a Level 4 'Do Not Travel' country on the best of days. Today it absorbs a mass gathering for Khamenei's funeral — crowd density, movement lockdown and a standing terrorism and kidnapping threat, all at once.
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The US holds Ecuador at Level 2 overall, but flags Do-Not-Travel pockets on the coast where armed robbery, express kidnap and extortion are routine. Quito is workable; Guayaquil is not the same country.
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A Guardian reconstruction of the Jean-Denis massacre puts at least 70 civilians dead in rural Artibonite, and the data behind it shows the violence spreading while the security mission changes hands. The US advisory holds at Level 4: Do Not Travel.
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The militant blockade on the capital's fuel resumed in late April and has not let up. More than 300 tankers destroyed, embassies drawing down staff, and a UN warning of a 'disastrous domino effect' across the Sahel.
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JNIM's blockade has torched more than 300 fuel tankers and left the capital rationing fuel and visibly darker at night. With the defence minister killed in April and the region's violence rising, the Security Council holds an open briefing on West Africa and the Sahel this month.
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Where the dial sits today for operators: the western Gulf is now an active conflict zone, the UK terror threat stays at SEVERE, the Red Sea is quiet but hair-triggered, and Mali's siege is the sharp end of a worsening Sahel.
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JNIM's fuel blockade has strangled Bamako since September 2025, Mali's defence minister was killed in an April suicide bombing near the capital, and a June assault hit Niamey's airport. The Security Council meets on West Africa and the Sahel this month.
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A fuel blockade of Bamako in place since September 2025, blockaded trade routes and a June strike on Niamey's airport put the Sahel's transport and aviation lines under sustained pressure. The UN Security Council takes up the 'expanding' threat in July.
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The FCDO warns of road closures, transport disruption and enhanced airport screening around the 7-8 July NATO summit in Ankara, and continues to advise against all travel within 10km of the Syrian border on a heightened terrorism risk.
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The Foreign Office has lifted its 'advise against all but essential travel' guidance for several Gulf states, but warns attacks could resume at short notice. A mismatch with some EU advisories carries an insurance trap.
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Where elevated risk is concentrated right now. A contested Gulf, a post-quake Venezuela under military lockdown, and a UK still at Severe. Each carries a distinct duty-of-care implication for anyone moving people.
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The UK terrorism threat stays at SEVERE into late June, while a weekend flare-up between Washington and Tehran strains the ceasefire and reignites Gulf and Strait of Hormuz risk.
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Two ends of the board. Britain's national threat level has sat at SEVERE since late April — attack highly likely. Bolivia declared a state of emergency at the weekend, and La Paz is now against-all-but-essential travel.
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A standing US maritime advisory warns that the Houthis continue to threaten commercial shipping across the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin, and early-June strikes on two vessels showed the threat is not theoretical. Targeting is no longer about flag alone but corporate links to Israel. The advice to US-flagged vessels includes going dark on AIS in high-risk waters.
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Antonio Guterres toured the new force's base in Port-au-Prince on 16 June. The UN-authorised Gang Suppression Force is standing up, but with fewer than 1,000 of its 5,550 personnel in place and the capital still largely under gang control, the threat picture for any movement remains extreme.
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The al-Qaeda-linked blockade has held since September and is choking the capital without a fight inside it. The US and UK have told citizens to leave. Plan as a do-not-travel.
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The Gang Suppression Force began operations on 1 June, yet it is far short of strength and gangs still hold most of the capital. Treat Haiti as a no-go for routine movement.
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The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to seven coastal provinces and the 20km Colombia border strip. A mass killing near Babahoyo on 3 June is the kind of cartel violence now reaching beyond the cities.
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Five major crossings have been closed since October 2025 after Pakistani strikes and Taliban retaliation. The acute fighting has cooled, but the closure is choking trade and movement on both sides.
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The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to much of Ecuador's coast and the 20km Colombia border strip. Gang violence, homicide and kidnapping remain elevated. Plan movement around the risk map.
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Pakistani airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan and a TTP raid in Peshawar have ended a month of relative calm. Treat the border belt as non-permissive.
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The civil war has slipped down the global agenda but not in intensity. Airstrikes have surged and the map stays fractured between junta and resistance.
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Al-Shabaab's 2025 counteroffensive reversed government gains and the group still mounts complex attacks in the capital. VBIEDs and hotel assaults remain the defining threat.
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M23 still controls Goma and Bukavu after its 2025 offensive. Talks are progressing but the ground stays volatile, with fresh clashes and FARDC drone strikes near Goma.
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Most of Israel is back on the FCDO's lower-risk footing, but the ceasefires are shaky and aerial attack risk persists. Gaza and the northern West Bank stay no-go.
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With El Fasher taken in late 2025, the RSF now dominates Darfur. Atrocity reporting, a collapsed health system and mass displacement make this one of the highest-risk environments on the map.
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The front has settled into attrition, but the deep-strike threat is the highest it has been. Russia fired a record 7,241 long-range drones in May 2026. No part of the country is out of range.
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The FCDO advises against all travel to Burkina Faso on terrorism, kidnap and instability. A snapshot for any team weighing West Africa exposure.
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After months of relative quiet, Houthi forces struck two commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden in early June. Targeting now reaches beyond flag state to a ship operator's port history.
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Armed groups control the overwhelming majority of Port-au-Prince. With no British consular staff in-country and a new gang-suppression force not yet at strength, Haiti remains a hard no for routine travel.
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An al-Qaeda-affiliated siege on Mali's fuel supply routes has the FCDO advising against all travel to the whole country. Any movement outside Bamako is a planned operation, not a drive.
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