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RVI in Local & Globa RVI – Media Update – January-June 2013 – 26 June 2013 www.youtube.com/riftvalleyinstitute facebook.com/RiftValleyInstitute twitter.com/RVInews RVI – Media Update – January-June 2013 – 26 June 2013 RVI in local and global media The RVI Media Update is a cumulative record of references to the Rift Valley Institute and RVI projects, including the Usalama Project and the Nairobi Forum, in local and international news media, academic literature and government publications. Links to the original items, where available, are provided with each article. RVI publications are available as free downloads from the www.riftvalley.net/publications. Recent additions include: Usalama Project reports From CNDP to M23: The Evolution of an Armed Movement in Eastern Congo (Jason Stearns) North Kivu: The Background to Conflict in North Kivu Province of Eastern Congo (Jason Stearns) PARECO: Land, Local Strongmen, and the Roots of Militia Politics in North Kivu (Jason Stearns) UPC in Ituri: The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-eastern Congo (Henning Tamm) Ituri: Gold, Land, and Ethnicity in North-eastern Congo (Dan Fahey) Raia Mutomboki: The Flawed Peace Process in the DRC and the Birth of an Armed Franchise (Jason Stearns et al.) FNI and FRPI: Local Resistance and Regional Alliances in the North-eastern Congo (Henning Tamm) Print-on-demand editions of the reports listed above are available from Amazon. Usalama Project briefing papers ‘M23’s operational commander: A profile of Sultani Emmanuel Makenga’ (Jason Stearns) ‘Strongman of the eastern DRC: A profile of General Bosco Ntaganda’ (Jason Stearns) ‘The Perils of Peacekeeping without Politics: MONUC and MONUSCO in the DRC’ (Emily Paddon) Nairobi Forum briefing papers ‘AMISOM in transition: The future of the African Union Mission in Somalia’ (Paul D. Williams) Contested Borderlands Two further volumes in the RVI series will be forthcoming in 2013: Between Puntland and Somaliland: Secessionism, Resource Conflict and Islamism in Northern Somalia (Markus V. Hoehne) Gambela (Dereje Feyissa) 2 RVI – Media Update – January-June 2013 – 26 June 2013 RVI in local and global media: January-June 2013 In the cities of Somaliland, the future has arrived: cash is disappearing, credit cards are unnecessary, and daily shopping is speedy and digital. Almost Somaliland: UK Government Urged to every merchant, even hawkers on the street, Intercede Barclays Decision to Suspend accepts payment by cellphone. ... Funds Transfer “I don’t even carry money any more,” says [RVI Somaliland Sun, 24 June 2013 Somaliland Focal Point] Adan Abokor, a scholar and (http://tinyurl.com/pwkgc5z) democracy activist in Somaliland. “I haven’t seen cash for a long time. Even small payments, like a The UK government is being urged to stop Barclays bus ticket, can be made with Zaad. When my kids closing the last account in Somalia which allows its are at school and they want a sandwich, I send citizens overseas to send money back home. A them the payment by Zaad. It’s immediate – there’s group of aid practitioners said the service was a no waiting for it, no counting of cash.” "lifeline" for an estimated 40% of the Somali population which rely on the transfers because of family welfare back home of the estimated 1.5m Somalis living overseas. Barclays which is the last major British bank to still M23 Kampala talks set to resume provide such money transfer services in Somalia IRIN News, 20 June 2013 said it could only serve firms which had strong anti- (http://tinyurl.com/mfrm3gn) financial crime controls. Its plan to close its account with Dahabshiil - the largest money transfer Delegates representing the government of the business providing services to Somalia - on 10 July Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the rebel will cause a crisis for the families which rely on the M23 are back in Kampala, Uganda, for a fresh round transfers, the letter signed by over 104 researchers of peace talks, but analysts say that unless both and aid practitioner's states. ... sides are fully committed to the negotiations, a political solution to the crisis in the DRC’s North 21. Dr Mark Bradbury, Rift Valley Institute, Nairobi Kivu Province is unlikely. The talks, which kicked off Kenya & London, UK in December 2012 under the auspices of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), broke down in April; M23 representatives walked out following a decision by the UN to deploy an intervention brigade to neutralize armed groups How mobile phones are making cash in eastern DRC. ... obsolete in Africa Some regional analysts are suspicious of M23’s Globe & Mail (Toronto), 21 June 2013 return to negotiations. (http://tinyurl.com/n79znfy) "The M23's return to the negotiation table should When he rolls into a gas station to fill his tank, be seen first and foremost as a PR [public relations] Barkhad Dahir doesn’t get out of his car. He manoeuvre. The movement wants to show that it is punches a few buttons on his cellphone and within seeking peace by all means," said Michel Thill, seconds he has paid for the fuel. With the same Great Lakes Region programme manager at Rift quick keystrokes on his phone, he pays for virtually Valley Institute (RVI). "Its demands, however, are everything he needs: groceries at the supermarket, well beyond what Kinshasa would agree to a few oranges from a market stall, a shoeshine on negotiate with what they consider terrorists - the the street, a cup of sweet milky tea from a café, and M23 knows that. even, if he wants, an afternoon’s worth of khat, a "The tensions are mounting between the M23, the mild drug favoured by many Somalis. … FARDC and the civil population in North Kivu, in the face of repetitive claims by UN senior officials and 3 RVI – Media Update – January-June 2013 – 26 June 2013 the Secretary-General himself that the international be the one condemned for conducting military brigade will be deployed in mid-July," he added. activities in civilian, residential areas, bringing "The renewed fighting in late May just before Ban ordinary people into harm’s way. … Ki-Moon's visit to Goma proves this." Aly Verjee is senior researcher at the Rift Valley Institute. New US envoy urged to push Congo governance Advocacy Groups, Congo Experts Applaud New Vision, 20 June 2013 Appointment of Feingold as Envoy (http://tinyurl.com/msrrf8y) Enough Project, 18 June 2013 More than a dozen advocacy groups urged the first (http://tinyurl.com/k4ynd5u) U.S. special representative to Africa's war-torn Twenty-one advocacy groups and Congo experts Great Lakes region on Wednesday to push for applaud U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for his democracy and good governance in the Democratic appointment of former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Republic of Congo. The United States named Russ (D-WI) as the new U.S. Special Envoy for the African Feingold on Tuesday in an effort to promote peace Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of in a region long afflicted by violence, not least in the Congo. They congratulate Special Envoy eastern Congo, where mineral wealth and ethnic Feingold in an open letter, and call on him to apply strife have drawn in neighbouring states. leverage and use incentives to focus on critical "We are convinced that this is a critical moment of democratization reforms in Congo. They also urge opportunity for U.S. policy towards the Great Lakes him to ensure that a peace process between Congo region," said an open letter from groups including and its neighbors address security, economic, and the Enough Project, the International Crisis Group refugee issues. … and the Rift Valley Institute. The signatories of the letter include Anthony W. Gambino, former USAID Mission Director to the DRC; Stephen R. Weissman, Former Staff Director; House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Africa; John Prendergast and Sasha Lezhnev of the Enough Memo To The SRF: Try Not To Kill Any More Project; Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Ethiopian Peacekeepers Group; Wynnette LaBrosse of Open Square; David By Aly Verjee Abramowitz of Humanity United; Sarah Pray of the African Arguments, 19 June 2013 Open Society Policy Center; Jason K. Stearns of the (http://tinyurl.com/ph4kjud) Rift Valley Institute; Jolly Okot and Lisa Dougan of Invisible Children; Dr. Denis Mukwege of Panzi If you fight for or sympathise with the SPLM-North Hospital; Michael Poffenberger of The Resolve; and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), you might Michel Gabaudan of Refugees International; argue almost any place in South Kordofan is a Jacques Bahati of the Africa Faith and Justice legitimate military target, Kadugli included. You Network; Vukasin Petrovic of Freedom House; Sean might say the SPLM-N’s shelling of the United D. Carasso and Monique Beadle of Falling Whistles; Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and Alysha Atma of the Atma Foundation. logistics base and Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mission (JBVMM) headquarters, which resulted in the death of a female Ethiopian peacekeeper and the injury of two others, was regrettable, but part of war. Sudan-South Sudan row gets worse You might feel international condemnation (i.e. the Radio France Internationale, 11 June 2013 US State Department remarks) that singles out the (http://tinyurl.com/oxdeboa) SPLM-N is unfair, particularly given the recent Misseriya attack in Abyei which killed Dinka Ngok Relations between Sudan and South Sudan further paramount chief Kuol Deng Kuol and an UNISFA deteriorated this weekend after Khartoum accused soldier. Or that the Government of Sudan should Juba of supporting rebels hostile to President Omar 4 RVI – Media Update – January-June 2013 – 26 June 2013 al-Bashir. Khartoum has announced it is suspending leadership in DRC, which went to a Brazilian general nine security and economic agreements with its whose last job was tackling criminal gangs in Haiti.
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