Roadblocks—infamous for the informal fees travellers must pay—are often thought to be found exclusively in rural areas. Yet, as Evariste Mahamba shows in this blog, the harbor of Goma also has a history of roadblocks. Having become hotspots of extortion, pressure mounted from citizen movements to dismantle the roadblocks. Recently, the new…

Western donors are struggling to maintain leverage on the increasingly authoritarian regimes in the Great Lakes region, whose desire to remain in power through formal, legal and informal means block efforts at governance reforms. While economic forecasts for most of the region are stable—due to rising commodity prices and the slowing down of…

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 often the victims. In this blog, Passy Mubalama zooms in on the experiences of parents whose children have been…

Since early 2018, Ethiopia’s political context has been in flux, including a deep popular challenge to democratic centralism, and the prevailing political order. In this context, reforms which strengthen constitutionalism and the rule of law in the country are increasingly urgent.

Over the last hundred years, the most powerful authorities—along with formal government—amongst the western Nuer communities have been individuals known as prophets. In Nuer society, men, and sometimes women, become prophets when divine beings choose to speak through them, bringing them renown and significant temporal power. One of the most…

This blog is the third part of the Navigating migration and the experiences of Congolese refugees in Nairobi series and will explore the reasons why so many Congolese refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya choose to live in Nairobi rather than the refugee camps in Kakuma and Dadaab, what the main challenges are for life in Nairobi, and…

This blog is the second part of the Navigating migration and the experiences of Congolese refugees in Nairobi series and will explore the driving factors behind Congolese migration to Kenya, the demographics of those leaving the DRC and what is drawing Congolese migrants to Kenya.

At the beginning of 2018, an estimated 600,000 Congolese refugees were residing outside of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in sub-Saharan Africa. More than four million Congolese were displaced within the DRC. Since August 2016, the Kasai region of south-central DRC has been embroiled in conflict, displacing close to one million…

This briefing analyses research teaching and practice in Somaliland and Puntland, with a particular focus on the University of Hargeysa (UoH) and Puntland State University (PSU). It builds on a needs assessment that was carried out in conjunction with a research methods course of lectures offered by the Rift Valley Institute and funded by the…

​Civil war seems settled as a permanent feature of politics in both Sudan and South Sudan. State and parastatal armed actors, insurgents and armed groups of various sorts are a regularized part of the Sudans’ political economy and ecology, in which civilian non-combatants are the primary victims