Unequal Adaptations considers how Little Ice Age (c1640-c1820) and the 1887 introduction of rinderpest can help us better understand the Horn of Africa's current challenges dealing with rapid environmental change.

After six days stationary in the Suez Canal, the Ever Given—a Panamanian-flagged container ship traveling from Malaysia to the Netherlands—was finally unstuck and able to continue its journey. While the name Ever Given will soon become a piece of trivia associated with a temporary blocking of one of the world’s most important waterways, the lessons that these events provide about…

RVI's Magnus Taylor speaks with RVI researchers, Joseph Diing Majok and Nicki Kindersley, about their latest report, Breaking Out of the Borderlands: Understanding migrant pathways from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan.

In the Horn of Africa there is a dynamic interplay between land and sea that has shaped political, economic and social relationships. Historical and contemporary instances of piracy in the Western Indian Ocean, at different times, precipitated a securitization of this maritime space and made visible the economic and political connections that tie sea to land. These events also reveal the many…

In February 2020 Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, appointed Hussein Abdel Bagi—head of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA)—as one of his five vice-presidents. Like his father, Hussein Abdel Bagi has forged strong relationships with Sudan’s security elites and powerful borderland communities, which has made him an increasingly important player in South Sudan’s relations with Khartoum.

Hussein Abdel Bagi’s appointment as the third Vice-President of South Sudan is an important building block for the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU), particularly its relations with Khartoum. Hussein’s long experience of Sudanese politics, and friendships with members of the Sudan Military Council, will likely be very useful to President Kiir.

The study asks two core questions: First, how do residents in the borderlands of South Sudan seek survival, welfare and better lives in the economies and cross-border migrant pathways available to them? Second, how do young men and women navigate the risks of migrant and military work across South Sudan, Sudan and further afield?

To understand how grain is traded in South Sudan, and who by, Jovensia Uchalla examines the life stories of South Sudanese and foreign grain traders, transporters and millers in Juba. These stories talk of opportunities, shocks and changing tastes.

This report examines the history of epidemic disease in this region in order to shed light on the current COVID-19 pandemic and its likely course. Rather than attempt to be comprehensive, this study focuses on three diseases that have caused at least one serious regional epidemic over the past two hundred years: Cholera, smallpox and syphilis.