In November 2004 the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began a nationwide programme of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR). Initially it was estimated that 330,000 combatants from ten armed groups would be demobilized and then either returned to civilian life or reintegrated into a reformed national army. However, in early 2008 a further 22 armed groups signed peace agreements and were also incorporated under the DRC government’s National Plan for DDR.

Conflict dynamics in South Kordofan — new HSBA Working Paper

The Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan project is pleased to announce the release of a new Working Paper:

‘New War, Old Enemies: Conflict Dynamics in South Kordofan’, by Claudio Gramizzi and Jérôme Tubiana, is now available to download.

Two years after Abyei was supposed to have a referendum to determine its political future, negotiations over the territory are at a standstill. Negotiations over a proposal by the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) for a referendum in October 2013 are mired in disagreements over voter eligibility, as they were in 2010, when Abyei’s referendum was last discussed.

To circumvent the logistical challenge and avoid the expense of transporting ammunition to existing demilitarization plants, a number of commercial contractors have created self-contained, mobile demilitarization systems. These are modified from existing fixed technologies, to be movable from stockpile to stockpile, comprising modular, transportable technologies (set up on a temporary foundation) which can operate over a relatively long period in a place, before being moved to another.

Almost one-half of Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence, including forced sexual initiation. Much of the violence is barely acknowledged, let alone investigated and prosecuted. Extreme and even fatal acts of violence—targeting poor women in particular—are common enough to be considered unremarkable, a non-issue for the media, the political class, the police, and by extension, the Kenyan state.

Every year, several hundred individuals die or are injured as a result of unplanned explosions, involving poorly maintained and badly managed ammunition stockpiles. While it is difficult to provide an accurate measure of the direct and indirect impacts of these explosive events on lives, livelihoods, housing, the environment, and development, the costs and consequences—in terms of health care, direct and indirect income loss, material damage, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), and environmental damage—are certainly severe.

Since South Sudan’s independence, the scale and severity of anti-government militia activity has been limited compared with the period between the April 2010 elections—when electoral losses motivated a number of rebellions—and the lead-up to independence in July 2011. Dissident forces continue to exist, but have largely operated from Sudan, making occasional incursions into Unity and Upper Nile state. However, the return of militia leader David Yau Yau to Jonglei state poses a threat to the stability of the new country.

Recent international news coverage of Libya usually obscures distinctions among the heterogeneous fighting groups operating in the country, branding them all as ‘militias’, and characterizing them as rogue, and beyond state control.

After nine years of rebellion, proxy arming, and shifting alignments between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and both Arab and non-Arab populations in the region, the Darfur conflict appears little closer to resolution than it did in 2003. Successive mediation efforts—in Abuja (2006), Tripoli (2007), and Doha (2009–12), among other initiatives—have not bridged the gaps between Khartoum and the multiplicity of Darfur armed opposition groups. In fact, although some parts of Darfur have become appreciably more peaceful, the last 18 months has witnessed an evolution of the conflict as a whole.