It is possible that the map is inaccurate due to inaccurate counts. I was surprised to see the Horn of Africa coded in light colors given its lawless reputation.
Somalia lacking a government might simply be lacking credible murder statistics. I have to say this much about local Somalis: they may be hostile to white men, especially younger ones, but they also seem to have strong cultural respect for the elderly. They seem to treat my mother who is getting up in years fairly amicably.
Interestingly, and not surprisingly if you think about it, many islands have very low murder rates. That's because the locals are so highly inbred (not a criticism; just a statement of fact. It doesn't bother me) that they are all related to each other multiple ways, and therefor unconsciously reluctant to kill each other. This seems to be true even in the tropics, where violent crime rates overall higher. It's not unusual for a number of archipelagos such as the Comoros to go hundreds of years without a murder.
