New Usalama Project Reports on Ituri

The Usalama Project, a research programme on armed groups in the eastern Congo, released two new reports on armed groups in Ituri this week. 

UPC in Ituri: The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-eastern Congo describes the origins and activities of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in Ituri district. It was written by Henning Tamm, University of Oxford. In tracing the rise and fall of the UPC, the report tries to understand why violence has ebbed so dramatically in Ituri since 2007, and whether lessons from the district can apply to the Kivus. The case of the UPC suggests that a neighbor’s interest in weakening rather than bolstering an armed group, coupled with robust international intervention and forceful government action, can tilt the balance in favor of peace. At the same time, the continuing instability in Ituri shows that real, sustainable peace will remain elusive in the absence of economic, military, and political reforms.

 

Ituri: Gold, Land, and Ethnicity in North-eastern Congo provides deeper historical background on the issues of ethnicity and exploitation of resources in the north-eastern DRC. It was written by Dan Fahey, currently a member of the UN Group of Experts in the DR Congo who previously taught in the Political Science department at Colorado College. 

French editions of the reports will be available on the RVI website in March and print-on-demand editions will be available from Amazon shortly.