Yemen was ranked as the world's most corrupt country in the annual corruption index released by the World Economic Forum on Oct. 16. The index was released as part of its Global Competitiveness Report.
The 30 countries in the list were commonly located in Africa, Central America, and the Middle East where legal and governmental systems are notably feeble and there is rampant poverty.
Yemen, for example, has been enduring a civil war. On Monday, the UN World Food Program told CNN the number of people that could starve in Yemen is expected to increase to nearly 12 million. The situation persists due to the conflict happening at the port of Hodeidah where aid and supply should be delivered.
The WFP stated that there are currently 18 million people in Yemen who have no idea where to get their next food while 8 million are already at the brink of famine.
WFP Yemen country director Stephen Anderson said around 570,000 families were forced out of their homes due to the conflict. The Yemeni riyal continues to depreciate while prices of basic necessities have tripled since June.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said people in Yemen are not starving but are being starved because of the man-made conflicts between parties and their respective international supporters, particularly the Western nations.
Venezuela, which is at number two in the list of most corrupt countries in the world, is currently in the middle of a humanitarian, economic, and political crisis. UNHCR said there are more than two million Venezuelans who have left the country since 2015. Of those, 250,000 remained in Ecuador while other continued their travel to other locations, like Peru of Chile.
UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said the number of Venezuelan asylum seekers, at nearly 7,000, is higher than Colombians for the first time in 2018. There are about 5,000 people leaving Venezuela on a day-to-day basis.
Among the 30 countries in the list of most corrupt countries is an emerging superpower, Russia. A study by sociologists at Moscow's Higher School of Economics released this month found that corruption-related crimes cost the government an estimated $2.5 billion in damages between 2014 and 2017. Interestingly, the report also found that more Russians have become tolerant of corruption compared during the time of the Soviet Union.
The World Economic Forum used a methodology linked to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index according to Business Insider.
Other countries on the list are Angola, Chad, Tajikistan, Cambodia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Haiti, Mozambique, Cameroon, Nicaragua, Uganda, Nigeria, guinea, Kenya, Lebanoon, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Guatemela, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Kyrgyztan, Laos, Mexico, Paraguay,Russia, Gambia, Ukraine, Iran, Sierra Leone.
