Family Life

06.21.10 |

Somalia once again tops "Foreign Policy" magazine's annual rankings of failed states. The influential publication publishes an annual list that takes into account such metrics as the number of refugees streaming across a country's border, human rights violations and economic woes. Chad earned number two as it deals with both internal unrest and an endless stream of Sudanese refugees. It should come as no surprise that Sudan is right behind Chad. Sudan's dictator continues to flout an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and the country's mired in a decades-old civil war over the Darfur region. The editors at FP describe the Democratic Republic of Congo at number five as "a country in little more than name." Afghanistan swapped places with Iraq this year to come in sixth and seventh, respectively. Nearly all the failed states on the list of 60 countries are repeat offenders.

 The magazine also compiled a list of world's worst dictators. Just 23 tyrants keep their iron grip on around one-point-nine billion people, nearly a third of the world's population. The dubious honor of number one dictator goes to North Korea's reclusive, nuke-lusting despot, Kim Jong Il. Some 200-thousand North Koreans fester in his prison camps and famine runs "rampant," FP reports. The full lists are at foreignpolicy.com.