Historically the production of knowledge reflects a history of unequal power relations and the economic domination of the Global South by the Global North. Africa sits at the centre of this inequality. Accordingly, the production of knowledge on African…
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RVI spoke with the authors of the recent RVI-VNGi report, Governing Local Security in the Eastern Congo: Decentralization, police reform and interventions in the chieftancy of Buhavu, Michel Thill and Abel Cimanuka. Based on 30+ interviews, the report explores…
RVI s’est entretenu avec les auteurs du rapport récent de RVI et VNGi, La Gouvernance de la Sécurité Locale à l’est du Congo : Décentralisation, réforme de la police et interventions dans la chefferie de Buhavu, Michel Thill et Abel…
Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo said on Tuesday they would withdraw from the eastern city of Goma only if President Joseph Kabila agreed to their demands, which the Congolese government was quick to dismiss as a farce. The…
Ce blog fait partie d’un projet de recherche intitulé Polisi Siku Kwa Siku sur la vie quotidienne du policier à Bukavu, ville dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo. Le projet, financé par le Knowledge Management Fund du KPSRL, explore comment…
Ce blog fait partie d’un projet de recherche intitulé Polisi Siku Kwa Siku sur la vie quotidienne du policier à Bukavu, ville dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo. Le projet, financé par le Knowledge Management Fund du KPSRL, explore comment…
The Institute recently wrapped up its fifteenth year of annual field courses, which were held this year in May and June in Kenya. The one-week intensive courses covered an array of historical and contemporary issues in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and…
In June and July, the Rift Valley Institute will hold the 2019 annual field courses in Ethiopia. Now in their sixteenth year, each course examines a different sub-region within eastern and central Africa: Sudan and South Sudan, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. They…
Research on conflict and violence in the eastern Congo often focuses on rural areas, which harbour armed groups, and are the prime sites of military operations against these groups. However, conflict and insecurity do not stop at the…
A form of insecurity that first manifested in rural areas in North Kivu, since 2015, kidnappings for ransom have also become commonplace in the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Here, it is children who are…
Recent Publications

Digital Governance and Security in the Horn of Africa
March 28, 2025
While digital finance—including mobile money—has developed unevenly across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, such technologies are nevertheless transforming everyday economic activities. In some cases, borderlands and cross-border financial flows are central to these digital developments and are driving further innovation. From

Legally Informal: Women, conflict and cross-border trade in the Mandera tri-border area
March 28, 2025
In the Mandera triangle—a pastoralist region encompassing the point at which the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet—the reality of local and cross-border trade often diverges widely from official state policies of control. This disjunction has created a grey

Making Sense of Borderlands
March 27, 2025
This think piece is an extract of a longer paper taking stock of the roughly 40 X-Border studies carried out between 2019 and 2025 under the auspices of the Rift Valley Institute’s XCEPT programme. If we are to fully grasp