New 'failed states index' report published

In an annual report by the US-based Fund for Peace published in Foreign Policy magazine, Somalia is this year's most "failed state" on a list of 177 countries, determined by factors such as its human rights record, security, and economy.

Among the factors contributing to the report's ranking of Somalia include heavy ongoing violence, no stable government for nearly two decades, and the world's third-largest refugee community.

In second place was Chad, followed by Sudan, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Seven of the top ten slots are African countries, and the continent also contains about thirty of the sixty most "failed" countries; Asian states also comprise 30% of the top sixty, and the Middle East has about 10%.

American think tank Fund for Peace collaborates annually with Foreign Policy magazine to produce the report. The index was first published in 2005, and countries are judged by twelve metrics, including refugee movement, economic development, history of violence, de-legitimization of the state, and others.

On the other end of the list, the least weak of the 177 countries evaluated was Norway, followed by Finland and Sweden. The US came in at number 158.

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