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This paper analyzes the peacebuilding process in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), focusing on the gaps and challenges that hinder effective peace efforts. It highlights the historical context of conflict in the region, examining the roles of various stakeholders, including local communities, in pursuing peace. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of integrating indigenous peacebuilding techniques as a means to reconcile and restore stability.
2000
For many people the word 'Africa' has become synonymous with conflict and its various stages, all of which affect human security. The continent experiences continuing civil conflicts, countries in danger of descent into conflict, countries facing renewed conflict, countries economically, socially or militarily affected by, or directly involved in, neighbouring conflicts, and countries in transition from war to peace. There are now a growing number of new conflicts in Africa that are increasingly violent and protracted. This new generation of violence, apparently internal but with international elements, is particularly threatening, not only for the countries involved, but also more broadly for regional and international security. More importantly, peace is often fragile, making it difficult to apply the term 'post-conflict' to many countries-in most cases there is a precarious balance between renewed conflict and sustained peace. Increasingly we are seeing countries that are caught in the 'conflict trap'. Of the countries that are in the first decade of post-conflict peace, perhaps half will fall back into conflict within the decade. Africa's 'New Wars' The term 'New Wars' is increasingly being used to capture the changing nature of war, the gradual shift in its causes, the duration and growing incidence of regional conflicts. Conventional approaches to conflict analysis that looked for obvious causes and motives are of limited use in understanding the New Wars, which are ostensibly about identity politics or statehood, and are largely devoid of the geo-political or ideological goals that characterised earlier wars. We see, for example, that the number of conflicts apparently caused by a quest for national and indigenous self-determination has risen sharply. Nevertheless, ethnic tensions and political feuds driven by socioeconomic and political grievances, although important, are rarely the principal cause
African Security Review, 2007
Book Review, 2022
The book resulted from a series of conferences on peace, mainly the five days of the 26th BiAnnual Conference of 2016, held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, organised by the International Peace Research Association. Christine Atieno and Colin Robinson focused on the causal linkage between the lack of development and its relation to conflicts to produce the book,
2014
The aftermath of the Cold War was marked by the shift from interstate wars to intra-state ones and brought along new issues for international security studies, and for international relations in general. The 1990s were marked by an increase in intra-state armed conflicts and ethno-political strife, but it also witnessed innovations and developments on the field of humanitarian action. Africa represents the illustrative region for the salience of intra-state violence, humanitarian emergencies, proliferation of insurgent armed groups and civilian insecurity. This article presents the complexities of largescale violence in DR Congo. Also, it shows that the wars in DRC were new types of warfare and explores the intrinsic relation between violent civil wars and human security.
Journal of International Development, 2011
Research on humanities and social sciences, 2015
The incidence of armed conflicts in Africa and the consequences on its population have become not only worrisome, negatively impacted on the socio-economic, political resources of Africa but increasingly ideological across the continent. The Study aims to examine the impact of armed conflict on Congo DR as defining instance of African armed conflict. It identifies the major causal factors of conflict as external interference in domestic affairs and gross lack of political will to enforce and abide by regional agreements, anti-corruption measures, non provision of needed political goods, and the overarching impact of DRC natural resources. The consequences are prevalent low human capital development indices, poor socio-economic indicators, escalating national crises- high civilian death rate, sexual abuse, national apathy, displacement and humanitarian crisis. The study proffers effective regional reconciliation plan among other proactive measures for rehabilitating, re-orientating a...
This paper set out the experience of Sierra Leone as a post war country and how the impact of conflict and peace security has affected the country and how its people are doing in fighting the challenges that they are facing, from Economic to security. Also this paper bring out how Sierra Leone has moved from being a war country to post war and even with the help of many external forces that is Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to the United Nations (UN).
The Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies
Progress in conflict prevention depends upon a better understanding of the underlying circumstances that give rise to violent conflict and mass atrocities, as well as the warning signs that a crisis is imminent. In recent decades there has been a substantial amount of empirical research on the causes of violence and the driving forces of conflict. The policy implications of this must be exploited to a greater degree so that the conditions that enable widespread violence can be addressed, before it occurs. The prevention of violent conflict and mass atrocities involves a range of social, economic and institutional factors, and it highlights broad challenges – many of which are international – relating to deprivation, inequality, political access and environmental management. It also involves overcoming a number of acute political obstacles that are currently embedded within the values and institutions of global governance. From this perspective, the paper presents a range of proposals related to structural conflict prevention and crisis response, as well as the prevention of mass atrocities.
The question of how International Criminal Court (ICC) involvement affects civil war peace processes has attracted considerable debate. Systematic assessments of the impact of ICC arrest warrants have begun to emerge, but the evidence is mixed. Based on data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) on intrastate conflicts between 2002 and 2018, this article presents evidence that suggests that ICC arrest warrants do not inhibit the onset of mediation. Neither do ICC arrest warrants seem to prevent peace agreements from being concluded. Crucially, however, ICC arrest warrants do seem to undermine the prospects for conflict resolution, defined as the termination of a conflict through a negotiated settlement. A closer look at mediation efforts in Uganda, Sudan, and the DRC reveals some of the causal mechanisms that underlie the finding that ICC involvement undermines the prospects for conflict resolution.
The contributions to this volume have sought to reflect on the complex discourse on violent conflict and conflict prevention in sub-Saharan Africa has developed since the early 1990s. This discourse deals with at least two separate, but closely interconnected questions.
International Peacekeeping, 2009
Conflict Studies Quarterly
In 2011, the World Bank reported that an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide live in con lict-affected countries where repeated cycles of political and organized violence hinder development, reduce human security and result in massive humanitarian suffering. Out of this igure, the African continent is host to a signi icant number. Since the 1960s, the continent has been laden with varied dimensions of con licts, orchestrated by, but not limited to, border disputes, communal/ethnic differences and political agitations caused by her colonial origin and other internal trajectories. Using document analysis conducted through systematic review, this work identi ies causes and consequences of con licts in Africa and prospects for peaceful and enduring con lict resolution mechanism. It was also identi ied that the response of African Union and other sub-regional organizations to the intense and chronic nature of con lict situations in the region has, over the years, ranged from apathy to reliance on short-term security measures, which has otherwise not able to proffer lasting solutions to the con lict situations. It was posited that rather than rely on heavy military operations and response-centric approaches to con lict management, there is a dire need for a robust effort at good governance and people-centred policy reforms where socioeconomic development is accorded high priority to mitigate the perception of alienation and marginalization among various groups in African countries. Besides, appropriate institutional responses by African states are critical and necessary to transforming the volatile environment to peaceful havens, conducive for development and progress.
The study examined ECOWAS mechanisms in addressing the challenges of human security in West Africa and investigated the importance of regional framework in strengthening and promoting human security in the sub region. It also established a nexus between human security and conflict prevention in West Africa. These were with a view to providing insight on the importance of regional framework in addressing the challenges of human security in the sub-region. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. For primary data, 34 in-depth interviews were conducted at the various departments of ECOWAS, which include: Political Affairs, Agriculture and Environment, Gender and Human Development, Trade and Free Movement, as well as Infrastructure. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted at the Department of Political Science of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies of six West African countries in Nigeria. These embassies include Liberia, Mali, Ghana, Benin Republic, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The respondents are as follows: five people in the senior cadre rank from ECOWAS which is the main organisation that the work had as its focal point. These respondents covered the selected departments of the organisation. For the academic institution, three respondents who had worked on ECOWAS and related areas were interviewed. Lastly, two senior members of staff were interviewed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies of the six selected West African countries making a total of 22. Furthermore, secondary data were sourced from ECOWAS documents, such as protocols establishing its various organs, institutions and modus operandi of the institution, books, journals, articles, magazines, newspapers and unpublished literatures as they are relevant to the subject matter. The data obtained were analysed using descriptive and content analyses. The results showed that the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework of 2008, ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme of 2006 and ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and Goods which were the organisation’s mechanisms for addressing human security challenges in the sub region, were adequate but with certain challenges. The results also revealed that the importance of the regional framework at addressing human security challenges was in strengthening and promoting human security in the sub region. This is because, the combined efforts of all states in the sub region under ECOWAS contributed to the drastic reduction of violent conflicts in the sub- region and also improved economic performance of the member states. Furthermore, the results also showed that there was a strong nexus between human security and conflict prevention. This is evident in the drastic reduction of violent conflicts in the sub region implying that the promotion and strengthening of human security could serve as conflict prevention mechanism. The study concluded that regional framework was successful in addressing the challenges of human security in the sub- region.
Since the independence processes in the African continent, armed conflicts, peace and security have raised concern and attention both at the domestic level and at the international scale. In recent years, all aspects have undergone significant changes which have given rise to intense debate. The end of some historical conflicts has taken place in a context of slight decrease in the number of armed conflicts and the consolidation of post-conflict reconstruction processes. Moreover, African regional organizations have staged an increasingly more active internal shift in matters related to peace and security, encouraged by the idea of promoting “African solutions to African problems”. This new scenario, has been accompanied by new uncertainties at the security level and major challenges at the operational level, especially for the African Union. This article aims to ascertain the state of affairs on all these issues and raise some key questions to consider.
2012
Armed conflict in Ituri since 1996 to the present day has resulted in the widespread and severe violation of human rights that include massive killings, rape, torture, mutilation and property destruction that has infringed peace and security in the province. Many studies on Ituri armed conflict point out land, minerals and identity as underlying causes of this social breakdown that lead to continued insecurity in Ituri. While acknowledging that there are many things that threaten the lives of individuals in times of war, this study focuses exclusively on the perceptions of the people from Ituri about the meaning and threats to peace and security as well as building human security in the province.
2012
This monograph is a collection of papers that were presented at the African Human Security Initiative conference that was held in Addis Ababa in February 2008. It discusses the changing methodologies used to analyse and map violent conflicts, conflict resolution and peace building approaches in Africa by moving away from Western-focused sociopolitical lenses that have defined the different policy reactions to conflict in the region. It is thus an attempt to apply a more holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding causes of violent conflict and, perhaps more importantly, how to diffuse them in a way that allows for the total disengagement of the military from the political control of the state by positioning the former in a manner that allows them to safeguard the territorial integrity of the states they serve, as this guarantees democratic stability by protecting and defending legitimate democratic institutions. The monograph's chapters offer distinctive and harmonisi...
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