The seventh RVI Usalama report on armed movements in the DRC focusses on two groups operating in Ituri District, the FNI and the FRPI. The report, by Henning Tamm, analyses these two mainly Lendu armed groups and considers the…
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June and July were months of intensive study for students on the Institute’s annual field courses. The courses involved over 140 participants, thirty teachers, and an administrative staff of eight. The 2013 season ended mid-July with the last of the…
Jama Musse Jama, the director of the Redsea Cultural Foundation is one of the winners of this year’s Cultura della Solidarietà prize, awarded in a ceremony on 27 September 2014 in Pistoia, Italy. The organising committee commended Jama for his ‘exemplary…
More than forty specialists on Eastern and Central African history, politics, economics and culture taught on the RVI’s annual field courses this year. Journalists and activists joined academics, humanitarians, and policy-makers for three intensive one-week events covering the Horn of Africa,…
On 30 November the Rift Valley Institute announced a search for three new senior staff members, to be based in the London and Nairobi offices of the Institute. The RVI London office also has a vacancy for an intern from…
The Rift Valley Institute’s annual field courses will be held in East Africa in June and July 2015. Course applications are now open. Locations of courses will be confirmed in early 2015. ONLINE APPLICATION FORM Taught by teams of…
The RVI annual field courses feature teams of up to fifteen teachers composed of regional specialists drawn from the region itself and from Europe and America. The most recent additions include Laura Hammond and Berouk Mesfin on the Horn…
The Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Project is a large-scale development initiative that affects communities across Northern Kenya and bordering countries. Yet those most affected by LAPSSET have limited access to information about its impact on their lives. A new project…
How do so-called fragile states exercise and maintain political power? What actors and institutions are involved in this process? How do they distribute the spoils of power amongst the elite and the population at large? These questions lie at…
Jemera Rone, who died on 29 July 2015, in Washington DC, was an early supporter of the Rift Valley Institute, and one of the Institute’s first Fellows. She taught on the first RVI Sudan field course in 2004 and on…
Recent Publications
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
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