The world’s most dangerous countries,Somalia is the third world's most dangerous

Tues., Feb. 2, 2010

Just before the New Year, seven Americans who were working with the Central Intelligence Agency were killed when a Jordanian double agent entered a gym on a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost Province and detonated his explosive vest. The bomber, who was working with both the violent Haqqani Group and the CIA, caused the worst death toll suffered by the agency since 1983, when eight of its personnel were killed in an embassy bombing in Beirut.

Days before, a would-be suicide bomber from Nigeria was wrestled to the floor of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit when the explosive chemicals he’d sewn into his underwear failed to detonate.

While a U.S.-bound commercial jet and a rural military base in a war-torn nation are night and day in terms of everyday security threats, the recent events illustrate that no place is truly, 100 percent safe all the time. And in between the two are dozens of countries where danger is just a part of everyday life. Afghanistan tops our list of the world's most dangerous countries. Even with thousands of private security and army personnel there (and 20,000 more U.S. troops to be deployed), certain parts of the country, like the region bordering Pakistan — where it's said that nearly every resident owns some sort of automatic weapon for protection's sake — are hotbeds of violence.

Longstanding tribal warfare, political corruption and — ironically — the increased military presence all have combined to push Afghanistan's violence from being concentrated in a few areas like the Khost Province in the southeastern border region, to being displaced to other regions that were once deemed safer, like the north. Also, transit routes for military personnel and private contractors are big targets for militants. The more roads are built, the more violence spreads out to areas lacking security forces.

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The world’s most dangerous countries

Ed Daly, a director at Maryland-based risk-assessment firm iJet, says that the growing number of attacks on both foreign troops and civilians far beyond traditional Pashtun areas suggest that Afghanistan is only going to get worse."Political corruption is fueling disaffection among Afghans," adds Claudine Fry, an analyst with risk-assessment firm Control Risk in London. Having failed to see improvements that the government and military leadehad promised, many Afghanis have become disgruntled — some even taking up arms with the Taliban for a wage, Fry notes.

Behind the numbers
To determine the world's most dangerous countries we combined rankings provided by iJet and Control Risks, giving equal weight to each set of data. The two firms used crime rates, police protection, civil unrest, terrorism risk, kidnapping threat and geopolitical stability to develop their own rankings. Where there was a tie we assigned the higher spot to the nation with a more recent travel alert on the U.S. State Department's watch list . We eliminated any country that didn't appear on at least two of these three lists.

AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazh The coalition government between dictator-president Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed in February 2009 doesn't seem to have stopped the fear of organized violence fuelled by political allegiances.

Somalia, like Afghanistan, is also experiencing a displacement of violence and ranks third on our list. The country's piracy problem and political vacuum — it hasn't had a proper functioning government in about 15 years — are two reasons why it remains one of the most dangerous on earth. With the international military response to piracy still looking inadequate, Somalia's infamous pirates have been sailing further afield into waters where they are less likely to be caught.

The European Union's anti-piracy naval force says that the number of attacks has fallen in the last year, but iJet analyst Rahwa Tesfay believes the pirates are just "shifting territory" to places like the Seychelles, a popular holiday destination in the Indian Ocean.

"Piracy will only continue, if not increase," says Tesfay. "The business is lucrative and there's no real effective military response."

Dangerous, but attractive
It's well known that countries like Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen, which also feature at the top of our list, are extremely dangerous to visit, yet Afghanistan is still teeming with foreigners, according to both iJet and Control Risks. And the numbers of people visiting the country each year have yet to fall.

The two organizations could not put a number on the expats living or working in the country, but there are thousands of people from China, India, Africa and Europe in Kabul, not just with the military or non-governmental organizations, but companies with business interests there. Enormous, up-for-grabs infrastructure and mining contracts fuel the influx of foreigners willing to risk their lives for a big payday.

Along with giving up safety, foreigners mostly give up a sense of a normal life when they move to a dangerous country. They usually live in guest houses or hotels where employers provide security. While there are a number of restaurants in Kabul offering Chinese, Indian or Italian food along with local Afghan cuisine, one shouldn’t bother looking for nightlife. There isn't much going on after 11 p.m., and it isn't safe to wander. Most smart visitors simply stay indoors.

Staying home might be even smarter.