El Salvador's homicide rate has now surpassed that of last year's murder capital Honduras after 2015 saw a 70 percent increase in murders, making it the deadliest country in the world outside of a warzone, according to ABC News.
Recently released government data on officially registered homicides revealed that a total of 6,657 people were murdered in the small Central American nation in 2015, reported USA Today. With a population of only just over 6 million, the homicide rate for El Salvador is 104 people per 100,000.
The country with the next highest homicide rate is Venezuela, where the homicide rate is 90 people per 100,000, according to AFP. In comparison, the U.S.'s homicide rate is around four people per 100,000.
Local officials claim that the high homicide rates are largely due to gang activity. The end of a truce between two large rival gangs - the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Barrio 18 - is thought to be responsible for the spike in homicides in the past two years.
The U.S. have pledged to give $750 million to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras collectively this year in order to help improve security and stem violence in these nations, AFP noted. This is, in part, an attempt to curtail the overwhelming number of people who have fled from these countries to the U.S. in recent years. Almost 10 percent of residents from these three nations have left their countries, often for the U.S., including over 80,000 unaccompanied minors who ended up in the U.S. between late 2013 and mid 2015, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Five people were already murdered this year in El Salvador on New Year's Day at a gathering, including one child, as HNGN previously reported. The incident was believed to have been gang-related. A further five gang members were killed in a police shootout on the same day.
