Photo: http://www.irinnews.org

AU soldiers cleaning their guns in their Tawilla base, adjacent to Rwanda IDP camp, north Darfur, Sudan.

Maputo — Mozambique remains among the world's top 50 most peaceful nations, taking the 48th position, for the second consecutive year, on the 2012 Global Peace Index (GPI) released in London last week.

The GPI is the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). It gauges on-going domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization in 158 countries by taking into account 23 separate indicators.

Mozambique is in a better position compared to other countries from the Southern African region, such as Democratic Republic of Congo (154), Zimbabwe (140), South Africa (127), Madagascar (99), Angola (95), Swaziland (85), Malawi (60), Tanzania (55), Lesotho (53), Zambia (51) and Namibia (49).

Botswana is the most peaceful country is the region, taking the 31 place.

On top of the table is Iceland followed by Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Austria, Ireland, Slovenia, Finland and Switzerland.

The least peaceful countries are Pakistan, Israel, Central African Republic, North Korea, Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia, which is ranked the least peaceful country according to the GPI.

The report sates that all regions apart from the Middle East and North Africa saw an improvement, with Sub-Saharan Africa lifting off of the bottom spot for the first time since the GPI was launched in 2007.

Madagascar, Gabon and Botswana experienced notable improvements over the past year and the region also shows the largest improvement in 'Relations with Neighbouring States' from 2009 to 2012.

Through its decline in peacefulness the Middle East and North Africa is now the least peaceful region globally. The drop largely reflects the upheaval and instability driven by the Arab Spring.

"What comes across dramatically in this year's results and the six year trends is a shift in global priorities. Nations have become externally more peaceful as they compete through economic, rather than military means. The results for Sub Saharan Africa as a whole are particularly striking - regional wars have waned as the African Union strives to develop economic and political integration." said Steve Killelea, founder and Executive Chairman of the IEP.

The IEP is an international non-profit research organization dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.