On 5 July 2025, the Rift Valley Forum brought together scholars, authors, activists and politicians to celebrate Ngũgĩ’s literary brilliance, political courage and enduring influence: A tribute to a towering figure whose voice empowered generations. The session drew more…
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By Liz Mahiri This blog post first appeared on the Mipakani Project website (www.mipakani.net). The Mipakani Project is an open-access knowledge base covering development initiatives in the border areas of eastern Africa. It was written by Liz Mahiri. Liz…
Recent Publications

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

Peace and Instability: Tigray since the Pretoria Agreement
March 26, 2026
CONFLICT TRENDS ANALYSIS / MARCH 2026 Summary THE ETHIOPIA PEACE RESEARCH FACILITY This conflict trends analysis was produced by the Ethiopia Peace Research Facility (PRF). The PRF is an independent facility combining timely analysis on peace and conflict from Ethiopian

Political Economy of Cash and Markets in Sudan
February 27, 2026
The research provides a snapshot of the war in Sudan in the period from February to April 2025. However, the war is dynamic, with political alliances and territorial control changing. The April 2023 conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)