Format: Zoom Webinar
Date: Thursday, 13 March, 2025
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EAT

The Horn of Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, and the Great Lakes are all experiencing a surge in political instability and conflict:

• The Horn of Africa is entering a fifth year of extreme turbulence, a period that is testing the resilience of its states and citizens: the COVID pandemic; Ethiopia’s bloody Tigray war and subsequent armed insurgency and drone-warfare; conflict between Somaliland’s army and local fighters in Las Anod; counter-insurgency operations against ISIS and al-Shabaab. Today, the region is roiled by armed conflict, unrest and fragmentation within states, deep political tensions between states as well as the spillover of violence, forced displacement of populations, climate crisis and terrorism across state lines.
• Similarly, failed transitions, war, and economic collapse have shaped Sudan and South Sudan in the last year. In South Sudan, the government is prosecuting peripheral wars against rebels while postponing the much-awaited December 2024 election, while Sudan’s future shape is uncertain following the announcement of a parallel government by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied groups in Nairobi in February 2025. Meanwhile, civilians continue to suffer amid escalating humanitarian crises in both countries.
• At the same time, the Great Lakes Africa faces its most severe political crisis in more than 20 years: the M23 crisis in the eastern DRC has displaced close to 3 million people. While the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) prepares to withdraw from the DRC, there is little sign of a functional peace process to address both immediate and root causes of the conflict. The conflict also features heavy involvement by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, and has drawn in the East African Community, the African Union and the Southern Africa Development Community. Other challenges are on the horizon, including succession battles in Congo and Uganda that promise to render the upcoming elections in both countries contentious, while the polls in Burundi will test political stability there, especially given the gloomy economic situation.

On 13 March 2025, the Rift Valley Forum will host a webinar that brings together a panel of leading experts—who will also serve as the directors of studies for RVI’s 2025 Annual Courses—to analyse these trends of political instability and conflicts in the region. Some of the big questions that the panelists will ask include: what do the region’s many wars reveal about wider political economy dynamics in the region? Are regional and sub-regional organizations well equipped to respond to the wars amid shifting geopolitics? What role can the international community play in responding to the crises? What are the alternative paths to peaceful futures in the region?

Speakers

Ken Menkhaus
Professor of Political Science, Davidson College, USA

Nicki Kindersley
Senior Lecturer in African History, Cardiff University, UK

Raga Makawi
Researcher, the London School of Economics and Political Science

Jason Kayani Stearns
Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University and founder of the Congo Research Group