Conflict and peacebuilding

The drivers, impacts, experiences and dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding.

Research paper

Reintegrating former fighters in the Congo: ambitious objectives, limited results

Current scholarly works in International Relations grew increasingly preoccupied over the effectiveness and programmatic failure of international assistance, especially with regard to issues pertaining to the ‘security–development’ nexus and the post-9/11 ‘securitization’ agenda. Complex Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programmes…
Central and East Africa Hub
Taylor & Francis Online
2016
Research paper

Military business and the business of the military in the Kivus

Contrary to dominant approaches that locate the causes for military entrepreneurialism in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo predominantly in criminal military elites, this article highlights the importance of the Congolese military’s (FARDC) civilian context for understanding military revenue-generation. It…
Central and East Africa Hub
Taylor & Francis Online
2013
Research paper

Sons of Which Soil? The Language and Politics of Autochthony in Eastern D.R. Congo

The recent wars in the DR Congo have led to a marked upsurge in both elite and popular discourse and violence around belonging and exclusion, expressed through the vernacular of “autochthony.” Dangerously flexible in its politics, nervous and paranoid in…
Central and East Africa Hub
Cambridge University Press
2014
Briefing

‘It’s not all about the land’: Land disputes and conflict in the eastern Congo

This briefing makes several key points: Current interventions in land conflicts are focused on conflict management rather than conflict resolution. Land conflicts are part of a wider governance problem and need political rather than technical approaches. Conflicts over land are…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2016
Briefing

Youth Groups and Urban Policing in the Eastern Congo

Across cities in eastern Congo, youth groups are involved in urban policing, operating between state and non-state actors and formal and informal governance. While some are responsible for improving security in their neighbourhoods, others contribute to its deterioration. This briefing…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2019
Report

A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu

A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu examines the role of state and non-state actors in the provision of security, and citizens’ perceptions of, experiences with and responses to insecurity in Bukavu, the capital of South…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2019
Report

Insecurity In Goma: Experiences, Actors and Responses

Since the start of 2019, a series of murders, violent robberies and kidnappings have taken place in peripheral neighbourhoods of Goma. The rapid rise in violent crime has alarmed city residents and led to calls for the local government and…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2019
Briefing

Rebels and the City: Urban dimensions of armed mobilization in the eastern Congo

Despite focusing the bulk of their operations on rural areas, armed groups in the eastern Congo have long-standing connections with urban centres. Technological progress, such as mobile communication, and enhanced movement, especially through motorcycle taxis, have intensified these connections. These…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2019
Thesis

Bringing Justice to the People: Examining International Assistance to the DR Congo’s Judiciary and Its Impacts on Sexual Violence Crimes and Gender Power Relations in North Kivu

This thesis aims to explore the impact of international assistance on challenging sexual violence crimes in conflict in the eastern DRC. In this regard, firstly, a broad understanding of the notion of violence is provided by gendering Slavoj Žižek’s theory…
Central and East Africa Hub
SOAS University of London
Briefing

Women, Conflict and Public Authority in the Congo

Even though women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are undoubtedly marginalized in formal political life, they are not completely absent from the political arena. Congolese women are involved in the exercise of local public authority in a…
Central and East Africa Hub
Rift Valley Institute
2016
Research paper

Fettered Self-determination: South Sudan’s Narrowed Path to Secession

The interpretation of self-determination as a vote for secession shaped the state that South Sudan has become since the 2011 referendum. Self-determination, this paper argues, is a democratic political process in which citizens determine their preferred form of statehood and…
Central and East Africa Hub
2017
Research paper

South Sudan’s Civil War Will Not End with a Peace Deal

In early 2017, the government of South Sudan declared that parts of the country had been hit by severe famine. This famine was another sign of the many ways in which a disastrous war was killing people. South Sudan had…
Central and East Africa Hub
2017
Briefing

Expanding the Reach of Justice and Accountability in South Sudan

This policy brief explores options to consider in expanding the reach of justice and accountability processes as part of any post-conflict transition in South Sudan. The brief is structured in three sections. After a short introduction, the first section examines…
Central and East Africa Hub
2016
Briefing

The Legacy of Kokora in South Sudan

This briefing paper presents a historical case study on Kokora, a word associated with the decentralization policy enacted in southern Sudan in 1983. The policy divided the semi-autonomous Southern Region in Sudan, into three smaller administrative regions. While the events…
Central and East Africa Hub
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