7 Africa states 'dysfunctional'

2008-06-24 09:44

Washington - Seven of the world's 10 most dysfunctional countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, an annual survey released Monday says.

The state of most of the seven was due largely to continuing mayhem either in Somalia or in Sudan's Darfur region. Somalia was at the top of the listing of states most at risk of failure.

"In many ways, Somalia has failed already as the unpopular transitional government lacks control of the streets of Mogadishu - much less the rest of the country," the list's compilers wrote.

The only non-African country in the first five of the "Failed States Index" was No 5, Iraq. The compilers said Iraq ranked so high because of the United States military surge in 2007.

The compilers said: "The gains that one might hope for - those that reflect fundamental, long-term changes - did not occur."

Conflict remains unsettled

Also, for the first time, Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank slipped into the index's top 60 at No 58, just behind Angola and Georgia.

Israel itself was stable and strong, but it remained responsible for the Palestinians, and "deep divisions still linger under the surface", the authors wrote.

The index used 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators to rank 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and the deterioration of their civil society.

It was compiled annually by the independent magazine Foreign Policy and Fund for Peace, an independent research organisation.

Somalia, at the tip of the Horn of Africa, had been without a functioning central government since warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Their ensuing conflict remained unsettled, and conditions had slipped steadily downward.

While the index found Somalia the state nearest to disassembling, many of its neighbours were close behind.

The top 10, in order, were Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Iraq, Congo, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Pakistan and the Central African Republic. Other African countries in the top 20 were Guinea, 11; Ethiopia and Uganda, tied for 16; and Nigeria, 18.

- AP