In an effort to continuously enhance transparency, CUTA is now making its annual report also available in both German and English
2024 was an interesting year for CUTA. During the first semester, we noticed a large number of threat reports, mainly resulting from the increased international tension, with the war in Gaza at the forefront. As of June the situation gradually improved.
The number of threat reports decreased, as well as the number of threats against the Jewish and Israeli communities, which had increased significantly since October 2023. The international context, however, remained very volatile.
Although in 2024 our country was spared from terrorist attacks, many attacks occurred in the West. Security services and the prosecutor’s office dealt with many cases, which regularly led to arrests. In the Common Database T.E.R., we observed a global decrease in the number of persons, but this was in particular due to the removal of many FTFs, who likely died in Syria or Iraq.
The main threat continued to come from the Islamist sphere. IS and, in a lesser degree, AQ propaganda continues to resonate in certain circles and keeps attracting new generations. Often young people are involved, who were previously unknown to the security and intelligence services.
18% of the threat reports in 2024 involved minors. They often radicalise online and don’t know each other offline anymore. This online dimension poses a major challenge.
For the rest, the threat image remains very diverse, including threats related to foreign countries. In the field of right-wing extremism, we observed a limited number of threat reports, but the prosecutor’s office and the security and intelligence services dealt nonetheless with many cases. In the field of left-wing extremism, however, we observed a higher level of activity, in particular due to the war in Gaza, with small-scaled incidents, but without real acts of violence. Furthermore, CUTA closely monitored threats emanating from Russia’s war against Ukraine. So far, its impact has been rather limited, with especially low-scaled cyberattacks, intimidations and disinformation campaigns.