Ghana has been ranked the second most peaceful country in Africa.
The West African nation is ranked 38th in the world out of 163 countries. Ghana scored 1.715 which represents a two-point move upwards from the previous scores.
This is according to the 2021 Global Peace Index report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
Mauritius leads the pack ahead of Ghana in the Peace index in Africa and ranked 28th worldwide.
Botswana was placed third in Africa and was ranked 41st on the global peace index.
At the top of the list is Iceland ranked the most peaceful country in the world with a score of 1.1.
New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, and Slovenia are ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Least peaceful countries
The five least peaceful countries in the world are Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan at the bottom.
Covid-19 impact on peace
As part of the key findings of the 2021 Global Peace Index, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has wreaked massive economic havoc around the world also had “a significant impact on levels of conflict and violence”. The level of civil unrest the report says “rose in 2020, fuelled in large part by responses to coronavirus restrictions”. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021 worldwide.
“The deterioration in militarization and improvement in ongoing conflict were both influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a major negative impact on economic activity, human movement, and international relations in 2020. The pandemic had a noticeable impact on the violent demonstrations and political instability indicators, with 25 and 46 countries respectively recording deterioration on these indicators,” the report further highlighted.
The IEP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
