COVID-19 and Peace in Conflict-Affected Areas

|by

|, |, ||

The relationship between COVID-19 and peace has been considered from a variety of perspectives. In addition, different empirical studies on the link between the pandemic and peace in conflict-affected areas exist. However, little work has been performed on examining these studies to highlight key findings on the theme of COVID-19 and peace in conflict-affected areas. A conflict-affected area is a country, or part of a country, where widespread violence or armed conflict was present when…

Read more

Food insecurity and unemployment crisis under COVID-19: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

|by

|, |||

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is struggling with unemployment and food insecurity, which became severe with the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and its containment measures. This paper aimed to present a systematic review of food insecurity and unemployment crisis in sub-Saharan Africa under COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, 1026 papers were retrieved from different sources, and 53 papers were included for the synthesis after screening and selection of retrieved papers. The review paper revealed that household livelihoods were disrupted,…

Read more

Crisis responses, opportunity and public authority during Covid-19’s first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan

|by and

|, , |||

Discussions of African responses to Covid-19 have focussed on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about the role of a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, professional associations, faith-based and civil society organisations, humanitarians, criminal gangs, local security services and armed groups. We begin to fill this gap by investigating how the pandemic provided opportunities for claims to and contests over power in areas of the Democratic Republic of the…

Read more

Crisis responses, opportunity, and public authority during Covid-19’s first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan

|by and

|, , |||

Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic provided opportunities for claims to and contests over power in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. Ethnographic research is used to contend that local forms of public authority can be akin…

Read more

Africa’s Peace and Security: The Pressures of COVID-19

|by

||||

In this article, Crisis Group’s Interim Vice President and Africa Program Director Comfort Ero analyses the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Africa to date and examines the biggest challenges facing the continent in its aftermath. The analysis includes a section on South Sudan and details how the pandemic has impacted the implementation of the peace deal.   Download

Read more

The challenges of confronting COVID-19 amidst fragile peace in South Sudan

|by and

||||

Just a few months ago, many South Sudanese were breathing a sigh of relief, believing that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had largely passed them by. Today, a virulent second wave is sweeping through the country causing huge harm to people’s health and wellbeing, damaging the already dire economy, and further interrupting the stagnating peace process. The number of cases is headed towards the 10,000 mark and there have been more than 100 deaths,…

Read more

Pandemic Pauses: Understanding Ceasefires in a Time of Covid-19

|by

||, ||

Key Findings Since March 2020, conflict parties have declared 25 ceasefires, across 17 countries. Ceasefires have been declared by some conflict parties in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Philippines, Syria, South Sudan, Sudan, Thailand, Ukraine and Yemen. After an initial period of ceasefires declared following the United Nations Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire in March 2020, conflict and peace processes are increasingly returning to ‘normal’, as…

Read more

Implications of COVID-19 on East Africa–EU Partnership on Migration and Forced Displacement

|by and

|||

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the current state and prospects of partnership between the East African countries and the European Union on migration and forced displacement. The pandemic has exacerbated the root causes of migration and forced displacement. This is manifested by the continuation of irregular arrivals in Europe including from East Africa, after a brief decline in the initial phase of the COVID-19 response. The strong economic impact of the pandemic on the…

Read more

The Peace Dimension of the COVID-19 Pandemic

|by

||, |

This essay argues that challenges to peace are one of the important long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents how violent conflict has been worsened by illegal armed actors using the pandemic to increase their strength, peace processes stalling or backsliding, and political strongmen exploiting the pandemic to consolidate power. In areas where these things are occurring, Catholic actors are responding with peacebuilding approaches. And the Catholic Church is particularly well-positioned to address these…

Read more

COVID-19 and the Political Transition in South Sudan

|by and

||||

Publication Summary The implementation of the R-ARCSS is stalled, as the parties have had difficulty gathering sufficient momentum to push the Agreement forward. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had serious negative impacts on the ability of the parties to implement the Agreement. The crush of oil prices in the global market, South Sudan’s lack of credit worthiness internationally, US Treasury’s warnings, corruption, and South Sudan’s weak fiscal and monetary policies, all make it…

Read more