Christof Maletsky
21 May 2008
Windhoek — NAMIBIA has dropped several places, both in Africa and the world, on an annual study which ranks nations in terms of how peaceful they are.
The Global Peace Index, the brainchild of Steve Killelea, an Australian entrepreneur and philanthropist, ranks 140 countries - from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - according to their peacefulness.
Last year Namibia was ranked 64th in the world and eighth in Africa.
The country has since dropped to 77th in the world and 12th in Africa.
Namibia scored lower than last year in areas such as the 'level of distrust in other citizens' as the formation of the new political party, Rally for Democracy and Progress, and the negative reception it received from the ruling Swapo Party takes its toll on the country's ranking.
Since the establishment of RDP, political intolerance has increased among some of the ruling party's supporters, with cases of intimidation reported almost on a weekly basis.
The index, drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent think-tank, together with the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit, also expressed concern about the ease of access to weapons and the drop in political culture in Namibia.
Using a broad range of 24 indicators measuring the internal and external peacefulness of nations, the index also scores countries in relation to their neighbours, arms sales and foreign troop deployments.
Ghana is ranked the most peaceful among the 30 African countries surveyed, followed by Madagascar, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia.
Namibia's neighbours Angola came in at number 16, South Africa at number 18 and Zimbabwe at number 24.
The index has also given poor marks to the United States and Russia, placing them firmly in the bottom half of a list of 140 states.
Iceland tops the survey as the most peaceful country in the world.
For the second year running, Iraq is in last place due to the continuing violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.
China is in 67th place, the US in 97th and Russia in 131th position.
The survey, published today, finds that 16 of the 20 most peaceful states are European democracies - most of them members of the European Union.
The nations making the biggest jump up the table are Angola, Indonesia, India and Uzbekistan.
Angola has risen 13 points because, five years after the end of its civil war, it has an increasingly stable political scene and is set to hold elections this year for the first time in 15 years.
Kenya, which witnessed serious internal violence after December's presidential elections, has shown the biggest drop in ranking.
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