The world’s leading security and health risk services company, International SOS, has released its annual interactive Risk Map 2025. As a global security and health risks continue to evolve, the 2025 Map provides organisations with underlying medical and security risk ratings reflecting the impact of disruptive events such as conflict, infectious diseases and impacts of extreme weather events – including those in Africa.

In addition to the established country and sub-national Risk Ratings, clients can also now access detailed risk information on around 1,000 cities and some of the key Risk Factors that drive the Ratings – with the latest data on variables such as conflict, crime, infrastructure, and natural disasters, as well as access to healthcare, health threats, and air pollution.

Sally Llewellyn, Global Security Director at International SOS, explains, “Our increasingly complex world is reflected in the Risk Map. We haven’t decreased security risk ratings for any country this year. Geopolitical tensions have been the most prominent trigger, with changes to risk ratings for locations such as Sudan and Lebanon, where the intensity and expansion of conflict now impact more population centres and have pushed the overall risk rating up. International SOS continues to support organisations operating in these locations with verified information and advice on how such risks will affect their workforce and evacuations where needed.”

Sudan, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Myanmar have all undergone multiple risk rating reviews and expansions of high or extreme-risk zones throughout 2024 because of conflict. Other increases in security risk ratings include New Caledonia increasing from low to medium, based on an assessment of the longer-term impact of social unrest, economic decline, and related crime.

On the other hand, crime trends and increased social unrest have resulted in changes in specific countries or regions including South Africa, Mexico and Kenya.

How business continuity gets threatened

While South Africa has a low rating for medical-related risks, mental health, climate change and security risks continue to rise. We have increased the risk ratings for the City of Johannesburg (Gauteng province) and eThekwini (KwaZulu-Natal province) metropolitan municipalities from medium to high. This change reflects the risks posed in particular by crime and associated violence, as well as social and political unrest. These municipalities respectively contain Johannesburg and Durban cities. We continue to rate South Africa overall as a medium-risk country and advise that travel there, including to the City of Johannesburg and eThekwini, can proceed.

Africa faces a significant burden of infectious diseases, which are influenced by a variety of factors including socioeconomic conditions, healthcare access, and environmental factors.

The continent accounts for a substantial proportion of global cases of diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, cholera, Ebola, dengue and chikungunya, and Lassa fever, among others. The prevalence of these diseases is exacerbated by limited healthcare infrastructure, inadequate sanitation, and the endemic nature of certain pathogens in specific regions.

Malaria remains one of the most common infectious diseases, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, with high transmission rates and significant morbidity and mortality.

Along with the Risk Map 2025, International SOS recently released its 2025 Risk Outlook report, revealing essential insights into the mounting challenges for organisational and workforce resilience, alongside risk predictions for the forthcoming year. The research uncovers a Fragmenting World with 65% of the surveyed senior risk professionals perceiving that risks have increased over the past year, and 69% predict significant impacts from geopolitical challenges alone in 2025. This comes as 78% predict that burnout and stress are likely to have a major impact on businesses in the year ahead.

Even in the ongoing permacrisis environment, the new research highlights that some of the most significant risks are those for which respondents said they were least prepared, including conflict, geopolitical tensions, and protests.