This blog was written by RVI Fellow, Nisar Majid, RVI D-Hum Project researchers, Ahmed M. Musa and Sahra Ahmed Koshin, and Salman Hassan and Khalif Abdirahman. The blog was originally published on the LSE website. On 22 April…
News
SEARCH
NEWS TYPES
REGION
This blog was written by RVI Fellow Nisar Majid and Ahmed M. Musa, post-doctoral researcher at the Diaspora Humanitarianism (D-Hum) project run by the Danish Institute for International Studies, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, Rako Research and…
This article was written by Abdirahman Edle Ali, Abdirahman Mustaf Mohamed, Jethro Norman, Karuti Kanyinga and Peter Albrecht. The authors are part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research programme, a consortium made up of the Danish…
This blog was written following a meeting of researchers and practitioners working on Somalia, on 1 April, hosted by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and facilitated by the Centre for Humanitarian Change (CHC). Thanks to Daniel Maxwell, Hannah Stogdon,…
This article was written by Abdirahman Edle Ali, Ahmed M. Musa, Mohamed Aden Hassan, Nauja Kleist and Mark Bradbury. The authors are part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research programme, a consortium made up of the…
Wisdom was the theme of this year’s Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF), held annually in Somaliland. A long-running supporter of the HIBF, RVI staff including Mark Bradbury (Executive Director), Anna Rowett (South Sudan Programme Manager), Mimi Bior (South Sudan Programme Officer),…
For over two decades Ethiopia’s political federation has been organized around the principle of ‘democratic centralism’. This philosophy also lies at the heart of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, and its centralized decision-making culture. Until…
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…
Haji Abdulkarim Hussein Yusuf, known as ‘Haji Abdi Warabe’, died in Hargeysa, Somaliland, on Friday 10 May 2019. His precise age is unknown, but local reports state that he lived to over one hundred. He was buried in a small…
Recent Publications

Minor Demarcations, Micro-Dams—Major Drama? Ethno-territorial expansionism and precarious peace in the Oromia–Somali borderlands of eastern Ethiopia
May 20, 2025
The report highlights the overlapping claims to and distributive struggles over territory and resources in the Oromia-Somali borderlands which animated inter-regional competition between the Oromia Regional State (ORS) and Somali Regional State (SRS), resulted in the brief 2023 uptick in

When Women Sing: How Murle women use arts and cultural mediums to communicate
May 16, 2025
This research explores how Murle women in the Greater Pibor area of central eastern South Sudan use not just songs but dance, hairstyles, body marks and beads to express themselves. Its objective is to draw attention to the ways Murle
Effectiveness of Women in Politics and Improving Gender Equality in South Sudan
May 2, 2025
This report argues that, in order to improve women’s participation in politics and promote gender-responsive policies in the country, there is a need to enlarge government capacity for women’s leadership by introducing equal gender quotas for decision-making positions. Summary Women’s