Understanding violence by African government forces: the need for a micro-dynamics approach

Remarkably, there are few in-depth studies of the forms and processes underlying violent practices enacted by African government forces

The disconcerting popularity of “justice populaire” in the Eastern DR Congo

Mob justice, or justice populaire as it is called in the DR Congo, is the practice by which citizens “take the law into their own hands” and collectively kill alleged perpetrators of crime or witchcraft, for example by beating or stoning them to death, or by burning them alive. The forms that this practice takes and the circumstances in which it is manifested are highly variable, with killings being sometimes more orchestrated, for instance when involving youth gangs or vigilantes, and sometimes more spontaneous

Pompier-pyromanocracy : Mbusa Nyamwisi and the DR Congo’s inflammable post-settlement political order

novembre 19211921/11 (N24)

From ‘autochthony’ to violence? ‘sons of the soil’ discourses and practices of violence

Claims of being ‘sons of the soil’ or ‘indigenous’ inhabitants as opposed to ‘foreigners’ play a prominent role in violent conflict around the world. Yet, as this blog argues, the violence occurring in these settings is not always directly related to these claims

How do patronage networks affect military cohesion?

Judith Verweijen examines the impact of patronage networks on military cohesion within the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC)

The disconcerting popularity of popular in/justice in the Fizi/Uvira region, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article analyses the disconcerting phenomenon of ‘popular in/justice’, or killings of citizens enacted by other citizens ‘in the name of justice’. It studies these practices in the Fizi/Uvira region in the conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they target either suspected criminals or presumed sorcerers. The article locates the causes for this phenomenon in certain transformations of socio-political space, notably the unsettling of customary and politico-administrative authority, dysfunctional state-led justice and security services, and the militarisation of local governance. These developments have compounded dispute processing and handling the occult, leading these processes to often turn violent. They also incentivise and enable politically and socio-economically marginalised yet demographically numerous groups to assert socio-political agency and engage in order-making. The article concludes by arguing that popular in/justice should be seen as an expression of such aspirations to exercise efficacious socio-political agency, thereby constituting a perverse form of democratisation

Coping with the barbarian syndrome: the challenges of researching civilian-military interaction 'from below' in the eastern DR Congo

This chapter investigates how dominant framings of the African armed actor as barbaric shaped ethnographic research on the everyday interaction between the military and civilians in the eastern DR Congo’s Kivu provinces. It also explores the role of the new media in the researcher’s efforts to cope with this discursive baggage

Luddites in the Congo? Analyzing violent responses to the expansion of industrial mining amidst militarization

The expansion of industrial mining in the war-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has provoked resistance from those depending directly and indirectly on artisanal mining for their livelihood, and has been faced with violent actions from politico-military entrepreneurs. By analyzing the interplay between armed and social mobilization against industrial mining in the Fizi–Kabambare region, this paper sheds new light on the relations between industrial mining, resistance and militarization. It argues that the presence and practices of industrial mining companies reinforce the overall power position of politico-military entrepreneurs. This occurs both directly, by efforts to co-opt them, and indirectly, by fueling dynamics of conflict, insecurity and protection that crucially underpin these entrepreneurs’ dominance. At the same time, due to the eastern Congo’s convoluted political opportunity structure for contentious action, politico-military entrepreneurs enlarge the scope for social mobilization against industrial mining. They offer a potential counterweight to repressive authorities and provide collective action frames that inspire contentious politics. Yet they also harness popular resistance for personal or particularistic purposes, while extorting the very people they claim to defend. These complexities reflect the ambiguous nature and versatility of both armed and social mobilization in the eastern Congo, which transcend socially constructed boundaries like the rural/urban, state/non-state and military/civilian divides

War, peace and geography:the perilous engagement with public policy toward armed conflict

Geographers engaging with policy debates on armed conflict in the Global South are confronted with a set of difficult questions that have no satisfying answers. In this provocation, I discuss three risks that appear inherent to policy engagement in this domain: the first is contributing to reproducing rather than upending a deeply unjust and unequal world order; the second is reinforcing colonial structures and epistemologies; and the third is facilitating the weaponization of one’s research. The discomforting confrontation with these dilemmas should not deter geographers of armed conflict from contributing to public policy, because non-engagement can be equally – if not more – problematic

The volatility of a half-cooked bouillabaisse. Rebel-military integration and conflict dynamics in eastern DRC

In early 2012, Congolese army deserters formed the M23 rebel movement. This article analyses the insurgency and other armed group activity in the eastern DRC in the light of the politics of rebel-military integration. It argues that military integration processes have fuelled militarization in three main ways. First, by creating incentive structures promoting army desertion and insurgent violence; second, by fuelling inter- and intra-community conflicts; and third, by the further unmaking of an already unmade army. We argue that this is not merely the product of a ‘lack of political will’ on behalf of the DRC government, but must be understood in the light of the intricacies of Big Man politics and Kinshasa’s weak grip over both the fragmented political-military landscape in the east and its own coercive arm. Demonstrating the link between military integration and militarization, the article concludes that these problems arise from the context and implementation of integration, rather than from the principle of military power-sharing itself. It thus highlights the crucial agency of political¬–military entrepreneurs, as shaped by national-level policies, in the production of ‘local violence’