Africa’s Most Peaceful Countries

Africa’s most peaceful countries

“The world is now considerably less peaceful than it was at the inception of the index. “

The Global Peace Index (GPI)  ranks 163 independent states based on their level of peacefulness and is the leading measure of global peace. The report uses 23 indicators to measure the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

Overall, ‘peacefulness’ has declined by 2.5 per cent since 2008.

“Global peacefulness has deteriorated over the past year. This is the fourth time in the last five years that the world has seen a fall in peacefulness. The average country score deteriorated by 0.34 per cent, with 81 countries improving, and 80 recording deteriorations in peacefulness.”

Highlights

• Africa’s most peaceful country is Mauritius.
• The continent’s least peaceful country is South Sudan, although the report acknowledges that “South Sudan made progress toward building the political foundations for peace at the end of the GPI measurement year.”
• The biggest improvers on the continent were South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, improving at more than 6 per cent. South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire improved across all the GPI domains, while Equatorial Guinea improved on the Militarisation domain.
• Benin experienced the biggest deterioration of any country in the world, falling 34 places to 106^th.
• Nigeria, which ranks in the 40^th position, face challenges on both Safety and Security and Ongoing Conflict domains. According to the report, “Nigeria’s problems with cross-border smuggling and imports undercutting local producers have led the government to shut down its borders, causing Nigeria’s relationship with neighbouring countries to deteriorate. Over the last year, the country has recorded further deteriorations in Militarisation and Ongoing Conflict and an overall deterioration in peacefulness of 0.8 per cent.”

To learn more about the index and its methodology, you can read the report here.

Africa’s 10 most peaceful countries

1. Mauritius

Score:  1.544

Score change:-0.018

Global rank: 23

2. Botswana

Score:  1.693

Score change: 0.017

Global rank: 33

3. Ghana

Score: 1.776

Score change: 0.011

Global rank: 43

4. Zambia

Score: 1.794

Score change:  -0.004

Global rank: 44

5. Sierra Leone

Score: 1.82

Score change: 0.051

Global rank: 46

6. Senegal

Score: 1.824

Score change: -0.013

Global rank: 47

7. Tanzania

Score:  1.85

Score change: -0.012

Global rank:  52

8. Namibia

Score:  1.861

Score change:  -0.031

Global rank:  53

9. Liberia

Score: 1.877

Score change:  0.017

Global rank:  57

10. Malawi

Score: 1.885

Score change:  0.107

Global rank: 59

Source, and full report available from the Global Peace Index 2020