Kenya appears to have softened its stance on the imminent closure of a camp hosting more than a third of a million Somali refugees, weeks after the deputy president, reacting to the massacre at Garissa University, announced it…
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Men in war-torn Somalia suffer high rates of drug addiction, divorce and mental illness, researchers said, urging donors to do more to support men and strengthen families…. “Men find themselves dispensable, with no meaningful role and no stake in…
The Rift Valley Institute organised a forum bringing together leading chiefs from five states of South Sudan in Nairobi last Saturday. The forum brought together the chiefs to discuss the current crisis in the country and the role they…
Tafari Wossen, an Ethiopian journalist and former civil servant, is the founding editor of the Seven-Day Update, a weekly news review published in Addis Ababa. This memoir of his childhood in the province of Waag was presented at the…
Maxamed Xuseen Geeldoon waa 27 sano jir, dhowr jeer isku dayey inuu u tahriibo Yurub balse ku guuldarraystay. Dhibaato, rafaad badan iyo sannado badan oo ka lumay cimirigiisa ka dib, waxaa uu dib ugu soo laabtay Somaliland isaga oo…
Maxamed Xuseen Geeldoon, waa nin da’ yar oo soo maray tahriib halis ah oo uu dhulka saxaraha kaga gudbay oo gaadhay Libya. Doon ayaa la qalibmi gaartay, wuu silcay oo wuu rafaaday, ka dibna wuxuu go’aansaday inuu dalkiisii dib…
The prospect of devolved county government has been met with particular enthusiasm in Kenya’s former Coast province since the passage of the new constitution in 2010. Many see devolution as offering a panacea for decades of the Coast’s perceived…
We Kissed the Ground is the dramatic first-hand account of a young man’s attempt to migrate to Europe from Somaliland and the hardships of the journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya, a journey attempted by many young Somalis and commonly…
Recent Publications
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‘THE FUEL IS US’: WATER, OIL AND DEBT ON THE SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN BORDERLANDS
February 18, 2025
South Sudan and Sudan’s borderlands are run by a patchwork of armed authorities. Since early 2019, when opposition forces were effectively wiped out, these zones of control have remained relatively fixed, even as the war in Sudan drew close to
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Conflict, displacement and children in paid work in the Sudan-South Sudan borderlands
February 17, 2025
In this blog, Manal examines the pressures forcing many displaced people, including children, to seek paid labour to supplement dwindling support mechanisms in camps in South Sudan. The author draws on her research in 2024 as part of the XCEPT
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DOMINANT PATTERNS AND DYNAMICS OF URBAN CONTESTATIONS IN HAWASSA
February 12, 2025
Studying urban contestations in Ethiopia’s secondary cities can help us understand how the urban centres outside of Addis Ababa are evolving during an ongoing period of significant socio-economic and political change. In this regard, Hawassa in Sidama region provides an