Congo-Kinshasa: Examining the Role of Rwanda in the DRC Insurgency
Examining the Role of Rwanda in the DRC Insurgency House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights Testimony: Jason K. Stearns, Director, Usalama Project, Rift Valley Institute Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and Members of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights: Thank you for the invitation to […]
Rwanda: Of What Use Are International Monitors?
Many Rwandans would have been interested in a recent online debate hosted by the Oxford Transitional Justice Research at the University of Oxford, UK, under the motion "international monitors, such as the UN Group of Experts or human rights groups, are essential for reporting on mass conflict." It pitted Jason K. Stearns for the motion, […]
UN’s elite force raises the stakes in DRC
An elite UN brigade tasked with "neutralising" armed groups in the DRC has raised the stakes of the peacekeeping mission in the troubled country, and some observers fear the radical step could backfire. The Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) established within MONUSCO – the UN's 17,000-strong peacekeeping mission in the DRC – was authorised by resolution […]
L’invité 04/09/2012: Jason Stearns, Directeur du projet Ousalama
Dans cet entretien, Jason Stearns directeur du projet Ousalama, qui travaille sur les groupes armés dans l’Est de la RDC, analyse les récents développements dans les relations entre la RDC et son voisin le Rwanda. Malgré le climat tendu, il pense qu’il est peut probable que les deux pays en viennent à un conflit armé […]
DRC: Who are the Raïa Mutomboki?
After a period of relative calm, fighting has erupted once more around the town of Bunyakiri in South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Reports from the area suggest that in early June, members of two armed groups burned down villages of their opposing constituencies following a dispute. In the subsequent days, […]
Briefing: North Kivu sees fresh clashes as peace talks stall in Kampala
Fresh fighting between the rebel M23 and the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the eastern province of North Kivu could spell the end of efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to the conflict, analysts say. In what have been described as some of the deadliest clashes since the rebellion began in […]
UN Intervention Brigade fires on Congo rebel positions
Though it received its mandate in March, only around 2,000 of the Intervention Brigade's total force of 3,000 troops are currently in place in Congo and supplies and weaponry are still en route from contributing countries. But Jason Stearns, director of the Rift Valley Institute's Usalama Project, said the force had little choice but to […]
Combatants “recycled” in DRC
… The integration strategy has been viewed as far from favourable, but even so, the Mai-Mai group Yakutumba is on the cusp of being integrated into the FARDC, according a recent report by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI).
Congo, U.N. Extend Gains as Tension With Rwanda Rises
A Congolese army spokesman, Olivier Hamuli, said the rapes were committed by individual solders who are being prosecuted under the country's military law. Military analysts have blamed the indiscipline on poor training and commanders who exercise little control over troops. "Trust between soldiers and their superiors is extremely low in the Congolese army," Jason Stearns, […]
Usalama Kinshasa Conference
In collaboration with the Réseau pour la réforme du secteur de sécurité et de justice (RRSSJ) and the Centre pour la gouvernance (CEGO), RVI held a national workshop in Kinshasa from 4 to 6 November 2013, to conclude the first phase of the Usalama Project. The conference was held in the context of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework signed in Addis Ababa […]