Rumours of Peace, Whispers of War : Assessment of the Reintegration of Ex-combatants into Civilian Life in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo
The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is poised on the edge of a machete blade. Despite the achievement of considerable peace-building successes throughout much of this central African state in recent years, the current activities of a...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/208281468028477015/Rumours-of-peace-whispers-of-war-assessment-of-the-reintegration-of-ex-combatants-into-civilian-life-in-North-Kivu-South-Kivu-and-Ituri-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26808 |
| Summary: | The eastern Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) is poised on the edge of a machete blade.
Despite the achievement of considerable peace-building
successes throughout much of this central African state in
recent years, the current activities of armed groups and the
Congolese armed forces in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri,
have the potential to further destabilize the eastern
provinces, and possibly even neighboring countries. Former
combatants are prominent in the security and stability
equation in the eastern DRC. The reason is that if this
section of society has not been effectively disarmed,
demobilized and reintegrated into civilian life, then they
have the potential to return to arms. In this region, over
100,000 ex-combatants have been demobilized over the past
decade in successive waves of disarmament, demobilization
and reintegration (DDR) interventions. Assessments and
speculation about the reintegration of ex-combatants in
North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri have suggested that these
individuals have become marginalized, and their
reintegration into civilian society is precarious, thus
making them vulnerable to further recruitment by armed
groups. Some reports have even suggested that numerous
former fighters have remilitarized in the mining areas in
order to access mineral wealth. Consequently, research on
the socio-economic reintegration of ex-combatants in the
eastern DRC was undertaken by the Institute for Security
Studies (ISS), and funded by the Transitional Demobilization
and Reintegration Program (TDRP) of the World Bank. North
Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri were the three geographical areas
of focus, given the volatility and potential pivotal role of
these areas in promoting and consolidating peace in the
eastern DRC. The specific objectives of the research were
to: 1) assess the processes of the socio-economic
reintegration of former combatants into civilian life; 2)
analyze the causes and dynamics of the current security
situation (or lack thereof) in the three areas, and the
implications for current and future DDR processes; and 3)
evaluate the extent to which demobilized former combatants
have been re-recruited into armed groups, including
motivating and resilience factors. The research took place
between February and September 2011, with the findings and
analysis being presented in this report. |
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