This Usalama report by Koen Vlassenroot outlines the historical dynamics behind the armed movements in South Kivu, focusing on the period before and leading up to the First Congo War. The province of South Kivu has been at the…
RVI publishes books, research reports, research papers, briefings and meeting reports in a range of formats. Publications cover policy, research, arts, culture and local knowledge in the countries of eastern and central Africa. Research publications—books, reports and papers—are peer-reviewed. Some RVI publications are also available in French and/or Arabic.
The RVI is a signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2001); all publications are free for download in PDF format under Creative Commons licences. The views expressed in books and reports published by the RVI are those of the authors, not the Institute.
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The Usalama Project is a gold mine of accessible information on Congolese armed groups. Its studies are, and will be, of great use for security sector reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. EMMANUEL KABANGELE, NATIONAL COORDINATOR, RRSSJ…
In December 2013, South Sudan descended into conflict. Peace initiatives over the following eighteen months culminated in an agreement between government and armed opposition, signed in August 2015. While the agreement came into effect in late 2015, many uncertainties…
On Friday, 27 February 2015, the Nairobi Forum invited author Eddie Thomas to launch his new book South Sudan: A Slow Liberation in a panel discussion at RVI’s office in Nairobi. Peter Biar Ajak of the Centre for Strategic…
‘The information in the report is accurate and ‘spot on’ … there is a lot to learn from this important issue.’ SUAD IBRAHIM ABDI, PROGRESSIO, SOMALILAND ‘The study is unique in the research questions it raises and in the…
‘This study provides an interesting and unusual insight into the state-building process in Somaliland. Taking Zaad—our everyday companion here in Somaliland—Iazzolino explores the intricate nature of private and public sector relations. Vividly mapping the landscape of the mobile money…
Since the Second Congo War (1998–2003), the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Congolese civil society have attempted, with the support of international partners, to tackle consecutive cycles of armed mobilization. Amidst other peace efforts,…
La stabilisation est devenue un mot à la mode dans le contexte du maintien de la paix, constituant le principal objectif déclaré des missions de l’ONU déployées dans des contextes aussi divers que ceux de Haïti, de la République…
<p>Stabilization has become a buzzword in peacekeeping, with UN missions in such diverse environments as Haiti, the Central African Republic, and Mali all claiming it as their central goal. Few of these missions, however, seem to have a clear…
- By Judith Verweijen, Claude Iguma Wakenge
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Après la défaite militaire de la rébellion du M23 en novembre 2013, la mobilisation armée s’est poursuivie à un rythme effréné dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo. Malgré un fort retentissement, une première série de redditions n’a…
Recent Publications
SHECONF 2026: International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
July 9, 2026
Event report On 26 March 2026, researchers, practitioners and academics gathered in Addis Ababa for SHECONF 2026, an International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in Ethiopia, the first of its kind convened by the Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET).
State Capture in Africa: How elite networks undermine democracy, development and security
June 24, 2026
Key points State capture has been increasingly recognized as a major governance challenge due to the way it helps to drive many of the most pressing problems facing contemporary states, including democratic erosion, corruption, economic exclusion, insecurity and declining trust
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