Sierra Leone topples Ghana to become West Africa’s most peaceful country

Sierra Leone has taken over from Ghana as West Africa’s most peaceful country.

This is according to the 2022 edition of the Global Peace Index, GPI, report released on July 12, 2023.

Ghana's overall score is 1.799 as compared to 1.759 and 1.715 in 2022 and 2021 respectively. Ghana recorded a decline of 0.014 whiles falling further down on the global ranking to 51st having been ranked 40th most peaceful country out of 163 countries.

Sierra Leone are third most peaceful across Africa only behind Mauritius and Botswana.

The global rank means Ghana dropped eight places and is currently sandwiched between Uruguay and Senegal (the fifth most peaceful country in Africa).

Ghana is currently under an International Monetary Fund programme triggered by economic headwinds that the government partly blame the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Some of the security challenges that Ghana has faced in the past few months have been a rising spate of deadly gender-based violence as well as attacks on some security officials.

There still exists a looming threat of terrorist violence being imported from across the Sahel, more so with neighbouring countries having recorded attacks in recent months.

About the GPI report

This is the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness. This report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.

The GPI covers 163 countries comprising 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.



Read the full 2023 GPI report below:



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