Mexico has surpassed both Iraq and Afghanistan to become the world’s most violent country after Syria, says a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Nearly 23,000 people were killed in Mexico in 2016 as the turf wars among drug cartels continued. Around 17,000 were killed in Afghanistan and 16,000 in Iraq during the same time period.
The highest numbers of deaths were reported in the states of Sinaloa and Guerrero, known for fighting “among competing, increasingly fragmented cartels,” he said.
Overall, Syria remained the most violent place on earth, and the conflict in that country has left around 50,000 people dead since it started in 2011.
Violence dropped significantly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study, with the amount of people killed falling more than a third from the year before.
Worldwide, the number of people who died in armed battles dropped to 157,000 in 2016 from 167,000 in 2015. But those numbers are still high compared to the previous decade. According to the survey the number of civilians displaced by wars continue to increase.
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