Caroline Hellyer
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 07:19
A continuation of the highly discredited, top-down, ‘War-on-Terror’ approach will only exacerbate problems in Kenya and needs to be replaced by a more nuanced, locally-based, non-sectarian understanding.
Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 07:01
Russia is working with South Africa and Uganda on a number of projects — a clear indication of its return to Africa. RT Global Resources, a subsidiary of Russia’s largest state-backed corporation Rostec, recently won bid to build Uganda oil refinery. Moscow’s interest in Africa is also about “soft power,” says Keir Giles, director of the UK’s Conflict Studies Research Centre.
Friday, January 3, 2014 - 07:43
A series of deadly attacks have been linked to discontent in DR Congo's resource-rich Katanga province. A Congolese televangelist has gone into hiding after his followers staged a coordinated series of attacks on key security locations in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 07:50
During the summer I was in Beni, North Kivu researching armed groups and local instability and training Congolese journalists. I was the only foreign reporter in the region and I interviewed the Imam of the local mosque on several occasions. He told me that I was the only person from outside the community who had ever bothered to come and speak to him. Any communication that he had with the authorities was initiated by him. No-one, neither MONUSCO (the UN mission in the Congo), Congolese military nor police, foreign NGOs or journalists, not even local peace-builders, had made any attempt to contact him despite the long term presence of an allegedly Islamic rebel group – ADF-NALU – in the area. This rebel group has forged alliances with other militias and has been responsible for endless killing, abductions and illegal trade and yet the local (peaceful) Muslim community were invisible to everyone. As I reported at the time, they were very afraid of being targeted in a backlash provoked by the increasingly shrill cries of al-Shabaab being responsible for the recent resurgence of ADF attacks.