Suchergebnisse

The proliferation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in Africa is partly attributable to weak national controls, the porosity of state borders, and ongoing armed conflict on the continent. To address these problems a number of initiatives have been undertaken by states, regional organisations, and other various implementing agencies with the aim of enhancing small arms control. This report examines these initiatives over a ten year period (2005–2015) in sixteen countries across the Greater Sahel region and generates a set of lessons learned. These lessons cover topics such as project duplication, the impact of internal donor restructuring, and the importance of identifying the needs and implementing capacities of local partners. While these lessons are intended to contribute to the existing body of research on small arms control, they are also, more importantly, intended to help donors and practitioners improve project design and impact.

"This book analyses the main events and turning points in the building of pre- and post-independent South Sudan. It covers the historical perspectives of the country, its political, mediation and negotiation issues, peace and security, socio-economic development, and gender, as well as conflict and reconstruction. Many African states are products of compromised peace settlement and power sharing agreements, following violent and protracted conflicts between colonial/occupying powers, armed groups and nation states. This is the same route that Africa's youngest nation, South Sudan traversed before attaining independence in July 2011. This edited volume is an innovative collection that serves as a complete reading on South Sudan, from the pre-independent to post-independent realities of the political, military and inter-ethnic conflicts and the negotiations to resolve them. It is a step-by-step account of the major events that mark the history as well as the contemporary occurrences in South Sudan. Although the conflict in South Sudan is still ongoing as this book is published, the lessons extracted offer guidance on how to sustainably end armed conflict in Africa by focusing on the history of the conflict, political issues, peace and security, gender, justice and contemporary dynamics. The book presents a gendered approach to arguments, while also reflecting gender equity in terms of the book authorship. Students and scholars within political science, African politics, international relations and security studies will find this book useful. This book will also be of interest to policy makers and research institutions engaged in peacebuilding in Africa"--

The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is poised on the edge of a machete blade. Despite the achievement of considerable peace-building successes throughout much of this central African state in recent years, the current activities of armed groups and the Congolese armed forces in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, have the potential to further destabilize the eastern provinces, and possibly even neighboring countries. Former combatants are prominent in the security and stability equation in the eastern DRC. The reason is that if this section of society has not been effectively disarmed, demobilized and reintegrated into civilian life, then they have the potential to return to arms. In this region, over 100,000 ex-combatants have been demobilized over the past decade in successive waves of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) interventions. Assessments and speculation about the reintegration of ex-combatants in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri have suggested that these individuals have become marginalized, and their reintegration into civilian society is precarious, thus making them vulnerable to further recruitment by armed groups. Some reports have even suggested that numerous former fighters have remilitarized in the mining areas in order to access mineral wealth. Consequently, research on the socio-economic reintegration of ex-combatants in the eastern DRC was undertaken by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), and funded by the Transitional Demobilization and Reintegration Program (TDRP) of the World Bank. North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri were the three geographical areas of focus, given the volatility and potential pivotal role of these areas in promoting and consolidating peace in the eastern DRC. The specific objectives of the research were to: 1) assess the processes of the socio-economic reintegration of former combatants into civilian life; 2) analyze the causes and dynamics of the current security situation (or lack thereof) in the three areas, and the implications for current and future DDR processes; and 3) evaluate the extent to which demobilized former combatants have been re-recruited into armed groups, including motivating and resilience factors. The research took place between February and September 2011, with the findings and analysis being presented in this report.