Top 10 African countries with the highest crime rates

Africa has continued to experience high levels of criminality in a two-year period since 2021, according to the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index.

According to the survey conducted by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime titled “Global Organised Crime Index- A fractured World,” which was released on Wednesday, Africa is the second highest scoring continent in the world at 5.25 out of 10 points for orgarnised crime, coming in after Asia, which scored 5.47.

Americas comes third with a score of 5.20 points, followed by Europe with 4.74 and lastly by Oceania with 3.23.

Africa's score is an increment of 0.08 points from the 2021 score, indicating that there is an increased rise in crimes in Africa.

The report noted that “levels of criminality are increasing worldwide while resilience measures are falling short of meeting the threat.”

The methodology used by the Global Organized Crime Index model was an alternative, commodity-driven assessment framework to measure illicit markets through a combination of scope and scale, value, and impact of 15 criminal markets.

Also, it used the structure and influence of five criminal actor types, and the existence and capacity of countries to be resilient to organized crime, measured across 12 resilience building blocks.

The top 10 African Countries with the highest crime rates include:

1. Democratic Republic of Congo (5th Globally).

2. Nigeria ( 6th Globally).

3. South Africa (7th Globally).

4. Kenya ( 16th Globally).

5. Libya (18th Globally).

6. Central Republic of Africa ( 23rd Globally).

7. Uganda (29th Globally).

8. Sudan (34th Globally).

9. South Sudan (36th Globally).

10. Cameroon (37th Globally).

In terms of organized crime resilience, Africa was the lowest-scoring continent with a score of 3.85 out of 10 points and Europe topped the resilience with a score of 6.27 out of 10 points.

However, the 3.85 score was an improvement of 0.05 points from the 2021 score of 3.80 points out of 10 points.

According to the report, "the highest scoring indicators on the continent were ‘international cooperation’ (5.03), ‘national policies and laws’ (4.72) and ‘territorial integrity’ (4.21). While implementation may be lacking, African countries have largely enacted national laws and policies to combat organized crime."

In terms of regional dynamics, East Africa is the highest-scoring region on the continent for overall criminality at a score of 5.88, followed by West Africa at a score of  5.44 points out of 10 points.

North Africa comes third with a score of 5.08 points, Central Africa Comes fourth with a score of 5.06 and Southern Africa comes fifth with a score of 4.83.

In the report, East Africa leads the list for both criminal markets and criminal actors," a hotbed of illicit activities and a stronghold for criminal actors, whose influence is aggravated by prolonged conflicts that make the region more vulnerable to the threat of organized crime."

In the continent, the report indicates that the most pervasive criminal market on the continent continues to be human trafficking, with a score of 6.06 points out of 10 points.

"The prevalence of this criminal practice is correlated to various factors, including the numerous ongoing conflicts in Africa, the economic push factors that leave people vulnerable to trafficking and the involvement of state-embedded actors in facilitating these activities," the report indicated.

According to the report, financial crimes were prevalent in Africa.

"High scores were recorded for financial crimes across the continent, including widespread incidents of financial fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement and misuse of public funds by state-embedded actors," the report stated.

"The continent saw high levels of cyber-enabled financial fraud perpetrated by highly organized criminal syndicates," it added.