The 2023 Global Peace Index of the most peaceful countries in the world has ranked Nigeria the 144th peaceful nation on earth.
The new reports disclosed that the most populous African country queued behind Israel, 143rd on the log.
first on the new ranking as the most peaceful nation in the world was Iceland, and Mauritius ranked first in Africa, followed by Botswana and Sierra Leone. In contrast, Nigeria ranks 37 out of 44 countries in Africa.
The Institute for Economics and Peace 2023 study measured a country’s level of negative peace using three domains of peacefulness: ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarisation.
These three indicators showed that 84 countries recorded improvement and 79 deteriorated.
According to the report, Ukraine and Russia are in 157 and 158 positions on the table, respectively. At the same time, Sudan, currently plagued with an internal war between its army and paramilitary forces, ranked in the 155th position.
In Africa, Botswana is the second most peaceful nation and 42nd in the world, and Sierra Leone followed as second, but 47th on the globe. Ghana, Senegal, and Madagascar were third, fourth, and fifth, coming as 51st, 52nd, and 55th in the global ranking, respectively.
It also disclosed that six of the nine regions in the world deteriorated in peacefulness in 2023, noting that “The terrorism impact indicator had the second largest deterioration since 2008.
“For the sixth year in a row, Afghanistan emerged as the least peaceful country in the world followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Speaking about factors that adversely affect peace, the IEP Global Peace Index says,“There have been deteriorations in the level of trust in governments, grievances between groups, measures of corruption, press freedom, conflicts between elites, and misinformation.
“Regionally, the largest improvements in peacefulness occurred in North America and the Middle East and North Africa region. North America’s improvement was mainly driven by Canada, which this year gains two positions to 11th place in the index.
“You can’t have development without peace, and you can’t have peace without development.”
