South Sudan among least peaceful countries for seventh time

A study has ranked South Sudan among the top five least peaceful countries for the seventh consecutive year.

According to the 2021 study by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), South Sudan comes fourth as one of the least secure countries and ranks even worse than war-ravaged Iraq which closes the count for the five most volatile countries.

South Sudan slipped to the red zone of the Global Peace Index after the country plunged into the civil war in 2013, which have been followed by on-and-off fights in various states.

Afghanistan remains the least peaceful country for the fourth consecutive year, and it is followed by Yemen and Syria.

 The IEP conducts data-driven research to gauge peacefulness in 163 countries every year. The findings are used in giving a prediction on the economic value as well as offering solutions to the security risks.

‘‘The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures 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,’’ the IEP noted of the findings of the Global Peace Index 2021, which also postulates that world peace suffered a relapse of 0.07 per cent.

The GPI, however, revealed that 87 countries improved in terms of peace but 73 suffered serious peace blip.

COVID to blame

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been flagged as one of the contributors to the setback in the global peace ranking.

The report reads, ‘‘The 2021 GPI reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade have begun to abate, only to be replaced with a new wave of tension and uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising tensions between many of the major powers.’’

With the lockdown came certain unrests in countries like South Africa and the USA where citizens demonstrated and aired their frustrations over the restrictions. This IEP says may have contributed to the de-escalation of global peace.

‘‘While some forms of violence declined in the short term, growing unease with lockdowns and rising economic uncertainty resulted in civil unrest increasing in 2020. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021,’’ the study states.

Tanzania leads the East African chart as the most peaceful country at position 58. Rwanda comes second at position 83, Uganda at 114 and Kenya at 116. Kenya was ranked at position 125 in 2020.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remains the most chaotic after contributing three of the five less peaceful countries. Europe is the most secure continent.