Figures released by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation index on Monday showed that South Africa‚ which was ranked number three in the continent’s good governance index report in 2006 is now sitting at number six.

• Safety and rule of law is deteriorating: Mo Ibrahim Foundation 

The top five of the 54 countries in the continent are Mauritius‚ Botswana‚ Cabo Verde‚ Seychelles and Namibia.

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The main four pillars used to determine good governance are human development‚ participation and human rights‚ sustainable economic development and safety and rule of law.

The Mo Imbrahim foundation found that in the past ten years African countries had improved on three of these pillars but have‚ however‚ shown a decline in the safety and rule of law pillar.

The foundation’s Mohammed Ibrahim said incidents of conflict have a direct impact on a country’s development economically and beyond.

“We can not say it more louder that we need peace in Africa. We need societies which are really leaving on harmony‚ conflicts etc are really destroying our development and our future.This is an important message‚” he said.

The five bottom ranked countries are Somalia‚ South Sudan‚ CAR‚ Libya and Eritrea according to the foundation’s report.

Data compiled by the foundation also shows that overall the continent’s rural sectors have improved in that last decade.

“It seems that we are paying more attention to our rural sector and agriculture. This is a very welcome developmental area which we have neglected for a long time‚” Ibrahim said.

There are 14 countries in Africa which are oil suppliers to the world. The foundation said that however huge amounts of money made by these countries have not been used to develop the continent.