Search
Search within Democratic Republic of Congo
243 results found
Briefing
Understanding Armed Group Proliferation in the Eastern Congo
Due to the proliferation of smaller armed groups and the disappearance and scattering of larger rebel movements, the armed group landscape of the eastern Congo has become increasingly fragmented. This fragmentation results from the interplay between the growing engagement of…
Background report
Stable Instability: Political settlements and armed groups in the Congo
This report analyses the stability, inclusivity and levels of violence of both the political settlement of the Congo as a whole and of political settlements in the conflict-ridden east. It shows that in each of these political arenas, armed groups…
Research paper
‘Living between Two Lions’: Civilian Protection Strategies during Armed Violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
This article examines how civilians assess, negotiate with, and in some cases deceive armed actors in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It demonstrates that civilians not only navigate the precarious and unpredictable conditions within armed conflict, but…
Research paper
Courses au pouvoir: the struggle over customary capital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This article analyses the production and reproduction of traditional chieftaincy in war-torn eastern DRC through the case of a succession dispute in Kalima (South Kivu). Kalima has seen two decades of political instability and violent conflict involving numerous local, national…
Background report
Indirect Rule in Armed Conflict: Theoretical Insights from Eastern DRC
Building on the analogy between armed factions in contemporary conflict settings and states in the making, this paper explores the conditions under which indirect rule emerges in contexts of armed conflict, and the consequences that this governance arrangement has on…
Blog
The many faces of the COVID-19 mask in Eastern DRC
The introduction of the mask during the COVID-19 outbreak changed daily life in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and took many faces. From state repression in the city of Goma, to fear of the unknown in rural areas, the mask…
Research paper
‘The data is gold, and we are the gold-diggers’: whiteness, race and contemporary academic research in eastern DRC ‘Les données, c’est de l’or, et nous sommes les chercheurs d’or’: la blanchité, la race et la recherche universitaire contemporaine dans l’est de la RDC
The humanitarian and development industry in eastern DRC and the demand for qualitative and quantitative research accompanying it have created a novel political economy of academic research. An array of research associations and private data collection firms have emerged to…
Book chapter
Taxation, Stateness and Armed Groups: Public Authority and Resource Extraction in Eastern Congo
This contribution analyses the role of taxation in the constitution of authority in the conflict-ridden eastern DRC, where numerous authorities alternately compete and collude over the right to extract resources. Taxation ranges from simple plunder, to protection rackets, to material…
Background report
Contesting Authority: Armed rebellion and military fragmentation in Walikale and Kalehe, North and South Kivu
Eastern DRC continues to be plagued by violence and dozens of armed groups. Yet, these groups—and how they interact with their social and political environment—remain poorly understood. This report analyses their involvement in public life in the territories of Kalehe…
Background report
South Kivu: identity, territory, and power in the eastern Congo. Usalama Project Report: Understanding Congolese Armed Groups
This report outlines the historical dynamics behind the armed movements in South Kivu, focusing on the period before and leading up to the First Congo War. It concentrates on sources of local conflict but argues that these can only be…
Thesis
Ethnogovernmentality: The Making of Ethnic Territories and Subjects in Eastern Congo
In this article I investigate colonial constructions of ethnicity and territory and their effects in the post-independence period in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The core argument of the article is that the constructions of ethnicity and territory that…
Research paper
Navigating Social Spaces: Armed Mobilization and Circular Return in Eastern DR Congo
This article discusses the social mobility of combatants and introduces the notion of circular return to explain their pendular state of movement between civilian and combatant life. This phenomenon is widely observed in eastern DRC, where Congolese youth have revolved…
Research paper
The Politics of Rebellion and Intervention in Ituri: The Emergence of a New Political Complex?
This paper aims to place the Ituri conflict into its social setting, arguing the outbreak of violence resulted from the exploitation, by local and regional actors, of a deeply rooted local political conflict for access to land, economic opportunity and…
Research paper
Doing business out of war. An analysis of the UPDF’s presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This paper analyses how Ugandan army commanders have mobilised transborder economic networks to exploit economic opportunities in eastern DRC during the military intervention of the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) in Congo’s wars (1996–97; 1998–2003). These networks are the starting…
Research paper
Rebels without borders in the Rwenzori borderland? A biography of the Allied Democratic Forces
This article provides a detailed analysis of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel movement that is operating from Congolese soil but so far has attracted very limited scholarly attention. Having its roots in Ugandan Islamic community, it has…
Research paper
Negotiated peace for extortion: the case of Walikale territory in eastern DR Congo
War in the DRC has increasingly been explained as a means to get access to natural resources and as a strategy to get control over informal trading networks linked to global markets. In most of these accounts, the complexity of…
Research paper
Producing democracy in armed violence settings: Elections and citizenship in Eastern DRC
The article analyses how the 2018 elections in the DRC contributed to a further opening of the democratic space and shared expressions and sentiments of citizenship. Through an ethnography of the electoral process in the South Kivu province, we investigate…
Research paper
Violent conflict and ethnicity in the Congo: beyond materialism, primordialism and symbolism
This paper investigates the nexus between ethnicity and violent conflict in the Congo. We make three interlocking arguments. First, that ethnicity is a defining political resource in the Congo’s politics and violent conflicts, which we call ‘ethnic capital’. Second, that…
Research paper
Forced Displacement and Youth Employment in the Aftermath of the Congo War: From Making a Living to Making a Life
This paper explores what it means to be young, displaced and looking for a job in a war-affected town of the DRC. It considers the livelihoods of young displaced migrants in Butembo, and integrates more critical views on the life…
Research paper
Armed mobilisation and the nexus of territory, identity, and authority: the contested territorial aspirations of the Banyamulenge in eastern DR Congo
The closely intertwined notions of territory, identity, and authority are at the heart of conflict dynamics in the eastern DR Congo. Focusing on the territorial aspirations of the Banyamulenge community in South Kivu, this article looks at the ways in…
Research paper
Armed groups and the exercise of public authority: the cases of the Mayi-Mayi and Raya Mutomboki in Kalehe, South Kivu
Some argue the Congolese state remains mostly irrelevant outside its capital or even that there is no such thing as Congo. Others contend there is no lack of state order, but that it is characterised by predatory rule and (privatised)…
Research paper
Gendered care at the margins: Ebola, gender, and caregiving practices in Uganda’s border districts
In July 2019, Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was declared a public health emergency of international concern and neighbouring countries were put on high alert. This paper examines the intersections of gender, caregiving, and livelihood practices in…
Research paper
The ‘good life’, personal appearance, and mental health of Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Uganda
Research into mental health and wellbeing recognises the role of positive mental health to enable people to lead healthy and emotionally fulfilling lives. Mental health difficulties continue to be associated with high levels of disability worldwide, and refugees fleeing conflict…
Briefing
Social Science Considerations on Human-wildlife Interactions in the Context of Epidemic Response
This briefing also reports on current hunting behaviours and rationales, and assesses the risk of further pathogen spillover events as a result of COVID-19.
Briefing
Exploring community dynamics around the plague outbreak in Ituri province, DRC
In April 2021, the Social Sciences Analytics Cell (CASS), in collaboration with UNICEF and the Provincial Health Division (DPS) in Bunia conducted exploratory research applying the Integrated Outbreak Analytics (IOA) approach in three health zones affected by a suspected plague…
Research paper
How to Improve Outbreak Response: A Case Study of Integrated Outbreak Analytics from Ebola in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
The emerging field of outbreak analytics calls attention to the need for data from multiple sources to inform evidence-based decision making in managing infectious diseases outbreaks. To date, these approaches have not systematically integrated evidence from social and behavioural sciences.…
Case study
COVID-19 school closures in the DRC: impact on the health, protection and education of children and youth
This report presents an analysis of the impact of school closures as a COVID-19 response measure in the DRC, and is intended to inform evidence-based programming to mitigate the short- and long-term consequences to health, protection, and education of children…
Case study
The impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak response on women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This report presents an integrated multidisciplinary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 and its response on women and girls in the DRC
Evidence review
Analyses intégrées et multidisciplinaires en épidémie
Une revue des analyses intégrées menées durant les 90 premiers jours de l’épidémie d’Ebola en Equateur
Case study
Impacts de la réponse COVID-19 sur la santé communautaire en RDC: Analyses Multidisciplinaires Intégrées des Épidémies
Analyses intégrées des impacts plus larges de la réponse COVID-19 sur la santé communautaire à Kinshasa, RDC
Case study
Thematic Analysis on the Listing and Follow up of Contacts
An in-depth EPI analysis of contact tracing on the Ebola Outbreak in the Equateur Province of the DRC.
Background report
SSHAP Africa CDC Webinar: Lockdowns and easing of restrictions: What can be done to adapt to local contexts and protect those who are vulnerable?
This SSHAP-Africa CDC Webinar brought together representatives of the Member States as well as from civil society organisations, humanitarian actors and professional organisations
Case study
Evidence for contact tracing (CT) analyses from the DRC Ebola outbreaks
This presentation provides discussion and evidence on contract tracing, looking at the experience of Integrated, Multidisciplinary Outbreak Analytics (IMOA) in the DRC Ebola outbreaks.
Evidence review
Impacts de la Réponse COVID-19 sur la Santé Communautaire en RDC
Analyse multidisciplinaires intégrées des épidémies
Field notes
Perceptions et Comportements Liés À Ebola
Résultats des études dans la province de l’Equateur auprès des communautés et du personnel de santé sur les perceptions et les comportements liés à Ebola.
Briefing
Perceptions des Mesures Barrières pour la Prévention et le Contrôle du COVID-19
Une étude sur les options de protection des personnes vulnérables à domicile
