For more than a century, the Horn of Africa has been affected by war and violence triggered and driven by clashes between state militaries, paramilitaries and other non-state militia groups. The ongoing war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the recent Tigray war in Ethiopia that left thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands more displaced, are examples of this. These conflicts do not reflect a breakdown in the political order in Sudan and Ethiopia, they stem from a deep-rooted military-political system created by unstable regimes that rely on militaries and/or militia groups to acquire and retain political power, as well as maintain territorial autonomy. As a result, the institutions of political authority have been intimately tied to the instruments of war, resulting in recurrent tensions over control between civilian leaders and official and unofficial militaries.  

On Monday, 10 June 2024, the Rift Valley Forum will launch a new report published by the Rift Valley Institute under the Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Trends and Policy (XCEPT) project, which discusses the history and structure of violence in Northern Horn of Africa focusing on Sudan and Ethiopia.

Location, Date, Time:

Online・2.00pm – 4.00pm EAT・Monday, 10 June 2024

Panellists

Speaker:
Dr. Steven Serels, PhD, Research Consultant, XCEPT
Research Fellow at the LeibnizZentrum Moderner Orient

Moderator:
Dr Semir Yusuf
Senior Research Advisor, Rift Valley Institute, Peace Research Facility, Addis Ababa

Discussants:
Dr Hannah Waddilove
Senior Research Analyst for the Horn and East Africa at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

Rowida Farh
PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of Khartoum, Sudan