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Thesis
He who touches the weapon becomes other: a study of participation in armed groups in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
This dissertation is a study of the dynamics of armed mobilization and participation in non-state armed organizations in the province of South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It asks one of the fundamental questions of the study of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Research paper
Public Authority and Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict: Virunga National Park as a ‘State within a State’ in Eastern Congo
Much research on nature conservation in war-torn regions focuses on the destructive impact of violent conflict on protected areas, and argues that transnational actors should step up their support for those areas to mitigate the risks that conflict poses to…
Research paper
What Women Want before Justice: Examining Justice Initiatives to Challenge Violence against Women in the DRC
While the realization of women’s rights has increased significantly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese women’s struggle is often obscured by certain international actors actively pushing for social change in the region. Those who are politically active in…
Research paper
Behind the weapon of war: sexual violence in wartime as a reflection of social attitudes towards women in peacetime
This article looks at practices of sexual violence that were prevalent during the period before the conflict in 1996 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and shows how they have contributed to war-related sexual violence. The findings are based…
Research paper
Love, Sex, and Exchange in the Context of Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The narrow framing of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) and the United Nations Zero-Tolerance Policy inadequately accounts for the range of sexual interactions in peacekeeping contexts and obscures the wider social contexts within which sexual decision making occurs. We draw…
Research paper
The Transitional Justice Gap: Exploring ‘Everyday’ Gendered Harms and Customary Justice in South Kivu, DR Congo
Feminist transitional justice (TJ) has greatly contributed to the study of justice in the ruins of war, notably around prosecuting wartime rape. At the same time, scholars have observed limitations to this research agenda such as externally-driven definitions gendered harms…
Research paper
Relationships Matter: Persistent Armed Conflict – A Case of Negotiated Authority and Survival
Many of the armed conflicts that have taken place over the past 25 years have been explained as a means by which greedy rebels and elites profit from natural resource rents. Accordingly, much of the research conducted in the field…
Research paper
Sexual and gender based violence against men in the Democratic Republic of Congo: effects on survivors, their families and the community
Media and service provider reports of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) perpetrated against men in armed conflicts have increased. However, response to these reports has been limited, as existing evidence and programs have primarily focused on prevention and response…
Research paper
A man never cries: barriers to holistic care for male survivors of sexual violence in eastern DRC
While we know that most male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) do not have access to care, little attention has been devoted to a systematic analysis of why this is so. Drawing…
Book chapter
Borders, boundaries, and brokers: The unintended consequences of strategic essentialism in transnational feminist networks
Strategic essentialising around the figure of the Congolese woman has created a collective of more than 60 different women’s organisations coming from opposite corners of the DRC. There now exists an extensive grassroots community, which maintains visibility and close contact…
Book chapter
Civil Society and Peacebuilding in the Kivu Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo
This chapter explores how effective or not has civil society been in ending armed conflict and building sustaining peace in Kivu provinces via the use of seven civil society’s peacebuilding functions. The findings are drawn from desk research, mainly exploring…
Thesis
Integrating Women into Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Case Study of Goma
This thesis, set in the context of field research conducted in North Kivu province in DRC, explores the barriers to women’s participation in peacebuilding processes and their potential contributions. From the field, it is evident that women’s organisations and groups…
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…
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…
Research paper
‘And Then He Switched off the Phone’: Mobile Phones, Participation and Political Accountability in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State
This paper uses qualitative and quantitative original data to investigate the impact of mobile phones in situations of political contestation or conflict. We derive hypotheses from theories in general political science, and on the role of mobile phones specifically. These…
Research paper
The Lord’s Resistance Army in Sudan: A history and overview
This study examines the military history of the LRA in Sudan, the prospects for ending the conflict and the main challenges facing the peace talks.
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…
Research paper
‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This article compares two cases of securitization along South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By comparing how a security concern – the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army – was interpreted and responded to, the article…
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…
Background report
Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict and Predicaments of Peace
This report aims to clarify reasons for increased intra-south violence in South Sudan. By reflecting on how people living and working in Southern Sudan experienced events since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), this report looks at ways in which intra-southern…
Research paper
Deals and Dealings: Inconclusive Peace and Treacherous Trade along the South Sudan-Uganda Border
Since Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, its border with Uganda has become a hub of activity. Contrasting developments on the Ugandan side of the border with those on the South Sudanese side, the paper draws on empirical fieldwork…
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…
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…
Background report
‘Land Belongs to the Community’: Demystifying the ‘Global Land Grab’ in Southern Sudan
Sudan is among the global ‘hotspots’ for large-scale land acquisitions. Although most were thought to occur in the country’s north, recent research indicates a surprising number of large-scale land acquisitions have taken place in the South in recent years. Now…
Book chapter
South Sudan-Sudan Cross-Border Relations. In: State Building and Development in South Sudan
As a contribution to international, regional and national processes aimed at informing state building in South Sudan, the African Research and Resource Forum in partnership with University of Juba, organised a two-day international dialogue called “State Building and Development in…
Working paper
Civil Wars and State Formation: Violence and the Politics of Legitimacy in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan
Civil wars destroy existing political orders, shape new ones, and play crucial roles in the dynamics of state formation. This working paper is based on a 2-year research project reflecting on the social construction of order and legitimacy during and…
Background report
Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Uror and Nyirol Counties, South Sudan
This report is one of a series based on qualitative fieldwork conducted by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan team in Uror and Nyirol Counties, Jonglei State, South Sudan in January and February 2013 (prior to the outbreak…
Background report
The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan
South Sudan has for decades been a crucible of experimentation in the field of humanitarianism in situations of conflict. Humanitarian operations have been critical in saving lives, providing essential medical care, documenting the plight of South Sudan’s people, and connecting…
Research paper
The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda
This discusses different forms of justice, as the campaign for regionally and specific traditional justice has done nothing to promote national integration. The commitment of those who assiduously promote it for selfless reasons is worthy of a better cause.
Research paper
Being Normal: Stigmatization of Lord’s Resistance Army Returnees as ‘Moral Experience’ in Post-war Northern Uganda
Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers’, this article theorizes stigmatization as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair.
Book chapter
Colonial Encounters in Acholiland and Oxford: The Anthropology of Frank Girling and Okot p’Bitek
The work of Frank Girling on the Acholi of Uganda and the prose works of Okot p’Bitek about Acholi customs should be recognised as seminal. Written at the time when the classic texts were being published about other Ugandan groups,…
