Conflict

We’ve linked up with Gender Links to see what has been done in the country, and we’re very interested in increasing collaboration. We have followed the Centres of Excellence process, and this methodology has been very useful for us. We know that the majority of the population in our commune is women, so if we mobilize them, local development will really get a boost. We took this into consideration when we implemented Gender Links’ program, and made sure that a wide variety of constituencies were involved; theist made participation very enthusiastic.

Women are slowly starting to take spaces for themselves. We are putting out the message, saying ‘look at us, and see what we are capable of doing.’ This gives me a lot of hope for the future.

Connue pour son hospitalité légendaire, la RDC s’emploie par les temps qui courent Á  rechercher les moyens de secourir plus de 7500 réfugiés burundais qui ont fui les tensions préélectorales dans la ville de Bujumbura, capitale du Burundi. La plupart de ces réfugiés sont des femmes et des enfants.

Name of article: Children refuse to stay with mother, brand her a witch (subtle stereotype) Name of Publication: New Vision Newspaper (gender blind) Date: 13 April 2015 Country: Zambia The […]

A catalogue of sexual violence has accompanied the armed conflict in Colombia. The peace talks must not brush it under the carpet. A group of 60 victims of the Colombian armed conflict last month spoke to representatives of the government and the guerrilla of the FARC, who have been engaged in peace talks in Havana, Cuba, since November 2012. It’s time to impress on both parties to the negotiations the need to address the plight of the Colombian women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence in the context of the conflict. A recent report,
Colombia: Women, Conflict-Related Violence and the Peace Process, published by Sisma Mujer , ABColombia and the NGO US Office on Colombia, documents the sexual violence to which women have been subjected in this context.

RDC, 2 avril: Masisi, un des six territoires de la province du Nord-Kivu Á  l’est de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), est une étendue de terre où les Forces Armées Congolaises de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) traquent les groupes armés qui y pullulent. La population de ces contrées fuit ces combats et certains ont trouvé refuge au camp de Muheto, ville située Á  près de 100 kilomètres Á  l’ouest de la ville de Goma. Malgré les difficultés du camp et l’angoisse d’avoir été obligés de fuir leurs villages natals, ces populations conservent leur ingéniosité. Un de ces réfugiés vient de mettre sur pied une radio qui émet dans le camp pour distraire et égayer ses semblables. Cette radio de fortune redonne le sourire Á  plus de 2000 familles qui vivent dans le camp de Muheto.

The conventional thinking about war and violent conflict in Africa is informed by
patriarchal hegemony. The African continent has experienced a sizeable number of
conflicts since the late twentieth century and has been at the forefront of gender
mainstreaming in peace and security.

Articles include: Security regionalism and flaws of externally forged peace in Sudan: The IGAD peace process and its aftermath and formal and informal land tenure systems in Afar region of Ethiopia – perceptions, attitudes and implications for land use disputes.

Other articles include the Nigerian State as an equilibrium of violence: An explanation of the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria and Emmanuel Ikechi Onah’s article on Pastoral conflict in Kenya and transforming mimetic violence to mimetic blessings between Turkana and Pokot communities and Ryan Triche – Terrorism and governance crisis: The Boko Haram experience in Nigeria as well as a book review on Towards an African Peace and Security regime.

This edition of Africa in Fact, entitled Broken Ranks, focuses on the military in Africa with articles on the decline of Nigeria’s military, the well cultivated image of Madagascar’s army and the trusted Rwandan peacekeeping force.

Other articles on the military in Africa include Uganda’s troops, the private military and security companies and Zimbabwe’s military reach in protection of politician’s business interests.

To understand the persistence of wartime rape that the DRC has experienced during the sixteen years old civil war, this study undertakes a critical analysis of the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ as proposed by Bourdieu. I have suggested that this concept [symbolic violence] as developed by Bourdieu needs other dimensions of definition in order to be applied to other social crises outside the western world. Shaping a link between wartime rape and its symbolic dimensions enables us to clearly articulate that the symbolic order brought through the practice of wartime rape by perpetrators does not remain unchallenged by the dominated who are direct and indirect victims of wartime rape. For this purpose, data were collected from ordinary community members, community leaders; a doctor and nurse form Panzi Hospital, an army General, a lawyer and some NGOs members working in the area of study (Kamanyola)through in-depth interviews. Observation and document analysis have also been used in the process of data collection. As a result the study found that wartime rape, at first, is a threat that perpetrators use to impose their own symbolic power upon males from the enemy groups through the rape of females from the same enemy groups. Therefore, this physical attack [war rape] against females impacts the victims as individuals, the community and the whole nation. This helps to suggest that physical violence is also symbolic violence. This is rendered possible through social and cultural patriarchal norms shared by both victims and perpetrators. As a result, family and community ties as well as marriage À“ as constitutive elements of the community’s symbolic order À“ are directly fractured by wartime rape. Forcing women to be economically unproductive was another strategy to undermine community ties which were built through community-based activities. Secondly, the strategic use of war rape comes to counter the idea of symbolic violence as being just soft or an invisible violence but under some circumstances a symbolic violence might produce physical harm.Thirdly, the study found that, patriarchy as the dominant social and cultural order is resisted by the dominated (women respondents in majority) now that it is associated to wartime rape. Because of this, I proposed that symbolic orders are not always taken for granted; they maybe resisted by the dominated. Based on the findings, this research report advocates for a more gender inclusive policy to encourage women to participate in the making of decisions which concern their lives as main victims of wartime rape in DRC generally and in Kamanyola in particular.