Uganda is among the least peaceful countries globally, according to the 2021 global peace index.
The index puts Uganda in the 114th position out of 163 countries. Despite the poor ranking, Uganda is more peaceful than a number of prominent states like the United States, Kenya, South Africa, India, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Brazil among many others.
Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.
The index covers 99.7% of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace based on the level of societal safety and security, the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarisation.
In 2020, Uganda was in the 109th position. Analysts attribute the decline in the ranking to the events that happened before and during the 2021 general elections.
The elections were marred by violence, security crackdown on political players especially from the opposition, accusations of kidnap and torture, among others.
In 2011, Iceland was ranked the most peaceful country, followed by Newzealand. In Africa, Ghana is top, though ranked 38th globally, while Tanzania (58th) tops the East Africa region.
