Somalia tops failed states index for fifth year

[FarhanYare]

CNN
Tuesday, June 19, 2012






Six African nations are in the top 10 of an annual failed-state index, including Somalia, which heads the list for the fifth straight year after continued struggles with lawlessness and piracy.
Somalia tops the 2012 Failed States Index because of “widespread lawlessness, ineffective government, terrorism, insurgency, crime, and well-publicized pirate attacks against foreign vessels,” the list’s compiler, Washington-based nonprofit Fund for Peace, said on its website Monday.
The group’s eighth annual list, which ranks instability risks of 177 nations based on 12 social, economic and political indicators, was published Monday by Foreign Policy magazine.

Nations ranking high on the list aren’t necessarily failed states, but are facing enormous pressure stemming from factors such as uneven development, economic decline and human-rights issues, according to Fund for Peace.

The top 10 nations on the 2012 Failed States Index are:

1) Somalia

2) Democratic Republic of Congo

3) Sudan

4) Chad

5) Zimbabwe

6) Afghanistan

7) Haiti

8) Yemen

9) Iraq

10) Central African Republic

See Foreign Policy's interactive Failed States Index map

Foreign Policy magazine notes that Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, is enjoying a period of relative peace. CNN has reported that African Union troops last year pushed Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group affiliated with al Qaeda, out of central Mogadishu after years of bitter urban fighting.

But battles between the groups continue elsewhere in Somalia. And last week, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time publicly stated that U.S. military forces are engaged in direct action against suspected terrorists in Somalia.

The biggest shifts happened outside the top 10 - mostly rankings of countries that experienced uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East last year. The worst decline was in Libya, which went from well outside the top 60 to No. 50 "as a result of civil war, a NATO-led campaign of airstrikes and the toppling of the (Gadhafi) regime," the Fund for Peace said.

Syria, where an uprising has endured for more than a year, registered the fourth-greatest single-year jump in the index's history (from No. 48 in 2011 to No. 23 in 2012).

Haiti, which jumped to the top 10 last year after 2010's devastating earthquake, is the list's sole Western Hemisphere representative in the top 10.

Other notable rankings: Pakistan, No. 13; North Korea, No. 22; Iran, No. 34; United States, No. 159. Finland was considered the most stable, at No. 177.

[blackstars25]

i've been saying for years now, somalis are biologically unfit to govern themselves and as they are threat to the stability of the region and the world economy somalia should be annexed by the UN. somalia would be a perfect place to conduct experiments on global warming because of its proximity to the equator which makes it see little variation in seasonal climate. this is the only contribution somalis can make to the world.

[Fey]

i've been saying for years now, somalis are biologically unfit to govern themselves and as they are threat to the stability of the region and the world economy somalia should be annexed by the UN. somalia would be a perfect place to conduct experiments on global warming because of its proximity to the equator which makes it see little variation in seasonal climate. this is the only contribution somalis can make to the world.

That word, I don't think it means what you think it means.

[blackstars25]

well i just made it what i think it means

[DarthSomali]

i've been saying for years now, somalis are biologically unfit to govern themselves and as they are threat to the stability of the region and the world economy somalia should be annexed by the UN. somalia would be a perfect place to conduct experiments on global warming because of its proximity to the equator which makes it see little variation in seasonal climate. this is the only contribution somalis can make to the world.

That word, I don't think it means what you think it means.

Sometimes raping the english language allows you to make a point.

[Fey]

People.

People stop bitching. WE WON!

[Shirib]

only for 5 years? What about the 16 years, or did they just start counting 5 years ago

[FarhanYare]

People.

People stop bitching. WE WON!

usheeg