Zambia’s peace hailed

SUN REPORTER writes VARIOUS stakeholders have commended President Edgar Lungufor presiding over a country that has been ranked the 4th peaceful in Africa and 44th globally. Zambia’s favourable rankings are contained in the 14th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). The GPI, which is the world’s leading measure of peacefulness for the universe, ranks 163 independent countries and territories around the world as per their levels of peacefulness, and is conducted by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP). Among those commended President Lungu are Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolutions of Disputes SACCORD, Healthy Learners as well as ordinary citizens. SACCORD executive director, Boniface Chembe, called on Zambians to jealously guard the peace that the country had continued to enjoy since independence. A senior citizen, James Mando, also observed that Zambians free people. “We have countries in Africa and in the world where freedoms have been curtailed but in Zambia people are free some even reaching an extent of insulting their own elected leaders including the President on Facebook and other social media sites,” Mr Mando said. Mr Mando however called for the respect and responsible use of social media especially among the youth population. And Health Learners president, Lonnie Hackett, expressed happiness with Zambia’s attainment, saying peace was important in the promotion of fundamental rights to education among others. “I think it is wonderful that Zambia has ranked so highly a testament of the government and a testament of the country and when you are talking about peace it starts with the youths and starts here at school,” Mr Hackett observed. At a global level, the 2020 GPI has shown that Zambia’s levels of peacefulness had increased by five points compared to the previous GPI and ranked only behind Mauritius, Botswana, and Ghana. The Sun