Nigeria leads 4 others in Africa’s violence, lowest levels of peacefulness—GPI 2019
The latest report of the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2019 has ranked Nigeria amongst Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia and South Sudan in terms of lowest levels of peacefulness and endless momentary violence against humanity.
The Index, the 13th in the series, released by the Institute for Economics and Peace ranked 163 countries according to their level of peacefulness.
The report said Ghana, Mauritius, Botswana, Malawi and Zambia were the region’s most peaceful countries.
Whereas the report said average levels of global peacefulness improved for the first time in five years in few nations outside Africa, Killelae, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, said “a deeper analysis finds a mixture of positive and negative trends.”
The GPI noted that ongoing conflicts, a part of the criteria for the ranking, deteriorated in countries like Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic. However, it notes the improvements in relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea, particularly because of the peace accord the two countries signed in 2018.
Safety and security in the sub-Saharan region, was the lowest, it indicated. Alluding to violent demonstrations and terrorism, it said deteriorations were recorded in 24 countries.
What might have been the region’s best performing area, was militarization, even though the Index says that reductions in UN peacekeeping funding and increases in nuclear and heavy weapons, led to slight levels of deterioration.
However, improvements from political instability, earned points for Ghana (44th in the world) as well as Angola and The Gambia, who rank 16th and 12th respectively in the region. It also noted that improvements in the political foundations for peace might have been the most promising development in the region.
