Gambia has 1,000 soldiers
Ethiopia and Eritrea have the biggest armies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The data, contained in the latest UNDP Human Development Report, is raising more concerns about the situation in the Horn of Africa.
Both in percentage and in numbers, Eritrea tops the list. Of a population of 4.2m, 202,000 are in the armed forces. One in every 20 Eritreans is a soldier.
Ethiopia holds the second position. It has an army of 183,000 for a population of 75m.
Other countries with large armies include Angola (108,000 troops), Sudan (105,000 troops), Nigeria (79,000) and the Democratic Republic of Congo with 65,000 troops.
Rwanda, with a population of 8.9m, has an army of 51,000, which is larger than Uganda’s 45,000, with a population of 27.8m.
Gambia and Equatorial Guinea have the smallest armies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their armed forces count only 1,000 soldiers.
Down on the ladder are also Lesotho (2,000) and Central African Republic (3,000), while Niger, Malawi, Benin and Gabon each have 5,000 soldiers.
Interestingly, the number of soldiers does not correspond with military expenditure. Botswana and Namibia, though having only 9,000 soldiers each, are spending a high percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, 3.8% and 3/1% respectively.
Though many Sub-Saharan countries have not submitted their figures, from the data available Burundi has the highest military expenditure as compared to GDP (6.3%), followed by Angola (4.2%) and the DR Congo (3%).
Uganda, which has been criticised by donors over its defence budget, spends 2.3% of GDP on the military. This is a slight increase compared to previous years but significantly less than in 1990, when military expenditure stood at 3.1% of GDP.
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With 2.2m soldiers, China has the largest army in the world, followed by the US (1.5m), India (1.3m) and Russia (1m).
Five countries in the world have no army at all. They are Iceland, Panama, Haiti, Mauritius and Costa Rica.
Source: blackwell-synergy : (New Vision, Kampala 28/12/2006)
