Namibia betters safety ranking
Namibia is the 7th safest country in Africa and has improved its global safety rank from 68th in 2022 to 56th in 2023 according to the 2023 Global Peace Index (PI).According to the report however, the occurrence of muggings does warrant caution, especially when managing cash near ATMs. Most of these crimes typically take place beyond the city centre, and the police often find taxi drivers complicit in these criminal activities.
Just like Senegal, the US State Department has placed Namibia under a Level One travel advisory, indicating that the country is relatively safe to visit. Namibia comes highly recommended by solo female travellers and is considered one of the safest African nations for solo journeys.
African countries who snatched the top spots are Mauritius, Botswana and Sierra Leone, while neighbour South Africa is ranked 33rd safest on the continent and fell 8 spots ranking 130th globally.
This is the 17th edition of the 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.
This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42 per cent. This is the thirteenth deterioration in peacefulness in the last fifteen years, with 84 countries improving and 79 deteriorating in peacefulness.