Hi,
Interesting thread indeed, and although there are I guess some more official lists, most of the members here will give personal information, based on experience or not.
I still do believe that there are just a handful of countries which can be called 'dangerous' enough to avoid travelling there. This includes most of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia (but not all of those countries!), the Central African Republic and to a much less extent parts of Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau. Mauritania is not particularly safe either sometimes.
Sierra Leone is quite safe for example, just like before the war. Rwanda is probably one of the safest in Sub-Sahara Africa and Botswana and Namibia are extemely safe. Lesotho and Swaziland the same. South Africa, although high crime rates in big cities can suggest otherwise, is safe outside a few small zones.
Also, although you do mention Kenya, I would not really wonder around Nairobi (Nairobbery) most of the time.
The thing is, sometimes stories or accidents pop up, intensifying the discussion, but after a while many travellers will visit most of the countries again, except a few like Somalia.
Grr, I wrote a massive passage but NoScript lost it
I was generalising as some countries will mostly be safe but they may not be places where tourists would typically visit.
South Africans I know wouldn't want to rather as even in small towns people will easily thinking about robbing you apparently.
I've heard recently Rwanda is still dangerous (at least more dangerous than on the list I gave?)
I am going to Bosnia and Serbia this summer and people still remember the war 10 years ago and expect me to be in a hostile area (the past few months there has been an uprising though)
I seem to be having problems posting links but I'll try anyway...
The below is the 2009 Global Peace Index. It includes all countries, not just Africa, but it gives something to measure them against. The other problem of course is that the data is a year or two behind - I expect Thailand will drop a couple more places this year!
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php
The below page splits it by region, though the North African countries are grouped with the Middle East:
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/regional-split.php
From personal experience I would definitely rate Tunisia as very safe for travellers. I've visited many times and have never had any issues with safety, including getting taxis on my own late at night. Of course everyone's experiences are different, but I sometimes feel safer there than in London! Women may get a lot of unwanted attention from local men but personally I have never found this to become threatening. I have heard of a scam where a local befriends a traveller and then invites them to their family home (or that of a friend) for tea or a meal and once there demands money from them. Apparently these situations can become very unpleasant and threatening, but I have not yet personally met anyone this has happened to.
Thanks, well Bostwana is higher then the UK so I should get there faster than Osmosis
Kenya isn't too peaceful and Zimbawane is worse, hmmm.
Thanks for the note about Tunisia, I went to a zoo in Thailand and meet 2 middle aged Thai teachers and they were very pleasant, we shared a taxi and they insisted on paying.
Interesting thread, I suppose it also depends on your individual experience as to what makes a country more dangerous than another - eg. I am originally from Zimbabwe, left 5 years ago and have never felt unsafe there when I have been back on holiday, my whole family still lives there and they have never had trouble yet when I went to Egypt a couple of years ago I constantly felt hasselled and uncomfortable and like everyone had an agenda and no one was genuinely friendly and we were seriously ripped off a few times. Therefore I would class Zim as safer than Egypt, aside from the political turmoil the locals are extremely friendly and genuine yet Zim without a doubt will be classed as far more dangerous than Egypt on any offcial list.
I would say Botswana and Namibia would be Africa's two safest destinaitons for tourists to visit.
As to West Africa the whole region is pretty safe. I can certainly vouch for having a hassle free trip to Ghana (barring minor annoyances) and I have it on good authority that Togo, Benin, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Senegal are fine.
My friend said the only trouble she had was in Mali where she was hassled a good deal, especially when she was trying to get to Timbuktu, and someone did try to rob her but you could I suppose have that anywhere.
Tanzania is pretty safe place to travel. It is also known in getting a lot of tourists from abroad to visit the wildlife and the Mt kilimanjaro. If you are looking into an African experience, Tanzania would be a choice ud like to think about
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