Breaking Out of the Borderlands: Understanding migrant pathways from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan
Breaking Out of the Borderlands is the second report by Dr Nicki Kindersley and Joseph Diing Majok on South Sudan’s changing borderland economy. The first report in the series—Monetized Livelihoods and militarized Labour in South Sudan’s Borderlands—described the protracted state of social and economic crisis that has gripped the borderland region of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal. […]
Trading Grains in South Sudan: Stories of opportunities, shocks and changing tastes
Displaced Tastes is a research project run by the Rift Valley Institute in partnership with the Catholic University of South Sudan under the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines the changing tastes for food in South Sudan in the context of the country’s economic transition and place in the regional, cross-border economy of grain. […]
Epidemics in the African Red Sea Region: A history of uneven disease exposure
Summary The sustained movement of people, goods and ideas across the African Red Sea Region has been and continues to be so intense that it binds together communities throughout the region in a unified multifaceted socio-economic system that transcends ethnic, linguistic and political divides. Where people went, viruses, bacteria and parasites followed. As a result, […]
Qaxooti kumeelgaar ah, kusii hakasho mise guri cusub? La-kulanka muhaajiriinta Yemeniyiinta ah ee kunool Puntland

Maqaalkan waxaa qoray Axmed Shire iyo Cabdideeq Warsame oo ka wada tirsan Jamacadda Puntland State. Waa maqaal kasoo dhex baxay mashruuca X-Border Local Research Network, gaar ahaan barnaamijka DFID ee Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT), waxaana maalgeliyey UKaid ee dowladda Ingiriiska. Barnaamijka waxa uu sameeyaa cilmibaaris si loo fahmo sababaha iyo saameynta […]
Temporary refuge, stopover or new home? Meeting Yemeni migrants in Puntland

This blog was written by Ahmed Shire and Abdideeq Warsame from Puntland State University and is a product of the X-Border Local Research Network, a component of DFID’s Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by UKaid from the UK government. The programme carries out research work to better understand the causes […]
Bosaso and the Gulf of Aden: Changing dynamics of a land-sea network
Bosaso and the Gulf of Aden: Changing dynamics of a land-sea network is the second report in a series looking at the relationship between modern-day Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of north-east Somalia, Yemen and the wider Gulf region. It focuses on the port city of Bosaso, which, historically, built its economic fortunes on easy access […]
COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa: How can aid help mobile populations cope with restrictions on movement?

This blog was written by Freddie Carver and is a product of the X-Border Local Research Network, a component of DFID’s Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by UKaid from the UK government. The programme carries out research work to better understand the causes and impacts of conflict in border areas […]
South Sudan’s Changing Tastes: Conflict, displacement and food imports
South Sudan’s long wars have forced millions of people to leave their own homes, farms and pastures and move to unfamiliar new areas of the countryside, to refugee camps and cities. In the process, they have changed the way they get and eat basic foods. Many remember the tastes of the old days: flavourful, satisfying […]
Conflict, Mobility and Markets: Changing food systems in South Sudan
Displaced Tastes is a collaborative research project run by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the Catholic University of South Sudan (CUofSS) as part of the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines how experiences of conflict, regional displacement and mobility, and the shift to an increasingly market-oriented and import-dependent economy have changed what people […]
COVID-19 in South Sudan’s Borderlands: A view from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal
Focusing on South Sudan’s borderland with Sudan, in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, it is clear that the national response to the virus, particularly the border shutdown, has rapidly become a new factor in Sudan and South Sudan’s cross-border political economy. The direct impact of COVID-19—like the consequences of Khartoum’s political transition and the establishment of the […]