A Global Peace Index report has listed Nigeria as the 16th
least peaceful country in the world.
The listing is contained in the 2019 edition of the GPI produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace IEP.
At 148 of 163 countries, the country retains its position in the previous year, even though its score rose by 0.025, from 2.873 in 2018 to 2.898 in 2019.
The report “measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of societal safety and security; the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and the degree of militarisation.
“The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources.”
Iceland and New Zealand retain their positions as the first and second most peaceful countries respectively, while Portugal dethroned Austria to take the third position.
Syria went from being the least peaceful to second least peaceful while Afghanistan went one place down to being the least peaceful country.
According to the report, Ukraine, Sudan, Egypt, North Macedonia and Rwanda showed the largest improvements in peace in 2019.
Like in 2018, Nigeria ranked 40 out of 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Mauritius topping the list, while South Sudan was ranked the least.
“Although the number of countries suffering from internal conflicts increased, the number of deaths decreased due to a lower level of intensity in conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Nigeria,” said the report.
“The impact of a lack of water has also affected conflict dynamics in Nigeria. Lake Chad, a major source of fishing and farming livelihoods, lost 90 per cent of its surface area in the past 40 years due to climate change and environmental mismanagement. Resultant unemployment and related food insecurity contributed to Boko Haram’s successful recruitment of unemployed youths in the area,” it added.
The organisation stated that the 2019 GPI shows “conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade remain unresolved.”
