Balkanization and Subjugation of Somalia
Somalia’s Special Envoy to the United States, Abukar Arman, provides first-hand commentary on Somalia’s hard-hit reality. Rejecting conventional confines proposed by the interest groups within international community and the “political vultures of the 21st Century”, he calls on Somalia’s Traditional Federal Parliament to assert itself against the limiting aspects of the Kampala Accord and, instead, stand strong to support the will of the Somali nation.
Corporative Governance: United Nations Peace Mission for Congo (MONUC) and the Forces Armée de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC)
Mukenge assesses the corporative governance relationship between UN peacekeeping forces and the DRC’s national armed forces, providing an analysis of challenges, successes and failures, pointing to the corruption and inherent inefficiences of UN peacekeeping operations.
Climate Change and Socio-Economic Development in Africa
The paper traces the predicament of climate change in Africa from the industrial era, through the 1950’s when African nations started regaining freedom from their colonial masters, to the present day of persistent socio-economic underdevelopment. It compares the greenhouse gases generated in Africa to the rest of the world and identifies through literatures the expected impacts of climate change in Africa.
Keywords: Climate change, Africa nations, impacts, poverty and socio-economic development.
Emerging Socio-Economic and Political Conflicts in Tanzania
Emerging Socio-Economic and Political Conflicts in Tanzania Author: William John Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 02/02/2011 Tanzania is known as a paradise of peace in the troubled continent of Africa. The country neither experienced civil wars, religious conflicts, ethnicity nor coups since independence (Hirschler, 2004; Rubanza, 2001). In effect, Tanzania facilitated […]
Living in Fear: Elections in DRC
Jean-Pierre, citizen and peace activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, shares a first-hand account of this week’s election-related violence in his country. Election results remain disputed among declarations of mass fraud and violence.
Is Every Child a Child?
Jerry M’bartee Locula discusses the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), raising questions about its universality, its practical implementation, the role of judicial proceedings in determining a child’s “best interest”, and ultimately posing the question of who is a child.
International Humanitarian Law Violations Committed by the Nkundan Rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
University for Peace Great Lakes Program Fellow, Philippe Tunamsifu Shirambere, comments on violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by the Nkundan rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, understood within the larger context of political violence in Africa’s Great Lakes Region.
Horn of Africa: ‘Predictable Crisis’, Unprepared Media, Curtailment of Information Flow
In times of disasters like drought and famine, a majority of the people hold that the flow of humanitarian aid is more important than the flow of information. But in reality, the flow of information from the victims, in the direction of those seeking to intervene is the most important issue, if those intervening truly want to help the victims. Patrick Mugo Mugo examines the impact of intervention, putting an emphasis on the flow of relief aid has had on the victims and their ability to be self-reliant once again.
Nigeria’s Vulnerability to Terrorism: The Imperative of a Counter Religious Extremism and Terrorism (CONREST) Strategy
As the Nigerian people anticipate possible change through the April 2011 elections, there is growing concern over internal violence and insecurity. Onuoha proposes a strengthened governmental response to reducing violent conflict in the country, with a specific focus on countering religious extremism and terrorism.
Operation ‘Degrade Al-Shabaab Capacity’: Kenyan Mission with No Winners, But Losers
If there is any lesson that the war on terror, now ten years old and counting, has brought to the surface, it is that conventional military is the worst possible tool to fight an insurgent group that coexists with and feeds from a complex crisis. The harder you hit the perceived stronghold with conventional strategies and weapons, the more complex the situation becomes. In this article, Patrick Mugo Mugo asks: what happens when you decide, as the Kenyan government, to go after the tail of Al-Shabaab and not its head? If we can assume that Al-Shabaab is an invisible creature of a complex crisis, what does that tell us about Somalia’s dithering Transitional Federal Government, which the Kenyan incursion purports to help? Why should the Kenyan government, well aware of American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, invade Somalia following the same script without even editing or rephrasing it? Even if the Kenyan military succeeds in ‘degrading Al-Shabaab capacity’, who will fill the void created in southern Somalia? But before all that, is it Al-Shabaab that is the problem, or is it the analyses that have come forth since al-Shabaab became credible threat?