On 22 February 2013, the Rift Valley Institute’s Nairobi Forum hosted an event entitled ‘Somalia’s Jubaland: Past, present and potential futures’. Jubaland has been one of the most heavily fought over regions of Somalia—but with its perennial river, fertile…
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The Somali Kenyan MP Yusuf Hassan was a conspicuous absence at a discussion on the role of art and literature in social reconstruction in the Horn of Africa, which took place on 10 December 2012 in Nairobi. The MP…
Kjetil Tronvoll discusses some of the flashpoints preceding war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998 on the Rift Valley Institute 2010 Horn of Africa course, Lamu, Kenya….
Dekha Ibrahim discusses the role of elders in a Somali community on the Rift Valley Institute’s Horn of Africa Course, which took place in 2008 in Djibouti….
At a Tedx talk in Juba on 13 July 2012, co-founder of the Rift Valley Institute and Executive Director of the Sudd Institute, Jok Madut Jok, spoke of the importance of culture in nation building. He emphasized the importance…
Suzanne Jambo discusses human rights and negotiating the CPA at the 2005 RVI Sudan Course in Rumbek, Sudan….
On 17 December 2012, Jason Stearns, director of the RVI Usalama Project, discussed the capture of Goma by the M23 rebel group and the escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at a public event…
Sarah Nyanath and Jok Madut Jok discuss cattle colour patterns during the 2005 RVI Sudan Course in Rumbek, Sudan….
Justin Willis discusses the history of development schemes on the 2005 RVI Sudan Course in Rumbek, Sudan….
H. E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia’s Federal Government, speaking to RVI Fellow Sally Healy during an official visit to London for talks with the British government….
Recent Publications

State Capture in Africa: How elite networks undermine democracy, development and security
June 24, 2026
Key points State capture has been increasingly recognized as a major governance challenge due to the way it helps to drive many of the most pressing problems facing contemporary states, including democratic erosion, corruption, economic exclusion, insecurity and declining trust

The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa
June 17, 2026
On 20 May, the British Institute of Eastern Africa (BIEA), Chatham House, and the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) convened a group of experts to discuss the ‘The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa’. The closed-door roundtable considered the ongoing transformation of

Commodification and Conflict in the Horn of Africa Borderlands
April 1, 2026
This report synthesizes findings from the Rift Valley Institute’s X-Border Local Research Network (2019–2025). In the surveyed studies, 25 leading local and international area specialists conducted extensive qualitative fieldwork across borderlands in South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Somali