Burundi president Evariste Ndayishimiye votes in 2020.
Evrard Ngendakumana/Xinhua via Getty Images
Any state policy looking to increase women’s representation must take into account formal and informal political practices.
A soldier guards a camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2023.
Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images
Central to the DRC’s politics is a broken relationship between the seat of government in Kinshasa and underrepresented groups in the eastern region.
Paul Kagame at a commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in April 2023.
Mariam Kone/AFP via Getty Images
The circumstances, challenges and history of Rwanda are intertwined with Paul Kagame’s own life story.
Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images
Kabuga’s release raises questions about the international community’s commitment to delivering justice for genocide victims.
Paul Rusesabagina receives the Medal of Freedom from US President George W Bush in 2005.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Rusesabagina’s release portrays Rwanda’s president as a pragmatist – one willing to negotiate once a security threat is neutralised.
Banyamulenge community members at the funeral of one of their own in eastern DRC.
Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
The Banyamulenge have been viewed as strangers in their own country – the violence targeting them revolves around this misconception.
Paul Rusesabagina at the Supreme Court in Kigali, Rwanda, in February 2021.
Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images
Rwanda has rebuffed international pressure to release Paul Rusesabagina, a man made famous by Hollywood.
Men hold up protest signs in front of the coffins of DRC refugees killed in August 2004 in Gatumba, Burundi.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is used to win a place in government, not to overthrow it. And it keeps working.
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi (left) and Rwanda President Paul Kagame in Kigali in 2021.
Habimana Thierry/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Rwanda believes DRC continues to provide refuge for those behind the 1994 genocide.
A billboard highlights Rwanda’s 100-day commemoration of the 1994 genocide.
Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images
In 2003, Rwanda adopted a policy of ethnic non-recognition. However, for 100 days in a year, it centres ethnicity in the country’s psyche.
Sorting newly picked coffee beans.
Thierry BrŽsillon-GODONG/GettyImages
The peasantry still provides almost all the resources of the party-state, yet most of the agrarian policy decisions are taken without consultation.
A soldier from the armed forces of the DRC on foot patrol in the village of Manzalaho near Beni.
Alexis Huguet / AFP via Getty Images
Violence in the DRC can be brought to an end if the geographical scope of the conflict is broadened to include all neighbouring countries.
A peacekeeper protects civilians who fled violent clashes between the army and the ex-rebels of the “M23” in eastern DRC in January 2022.
Photo by Glody Murhabazi/AFP via GettyImages
Recent clashes put eastern Congo’s M23 into the headlines again, but many other security problems persist in the area as diplomats struggle to tackle the underlying causes.
Un mineur étranger non accompagné suit des cours dispensés par un volontaire dans un parc à Toulouse, en France, en octobre 2017.
Les gouvernements et les organismes devraient se préparer à saisir les opportunités de seconde chance dans l’éducation formelle pour éviter les retards créés par des situations d’urgence très longues
An unaccompanied foreign minor does lessons provided by a volunteer in a park in Toulouse, France, October 2017.
Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Governments and agencies should prepare second chance opportunities for formal education as emergency situations may last for several years and create a backlog of education.
A gathering of women survivors at a Solace Ministries meeting, near Kigali, Rwanda, in 2010.
Donald E. Miller
A scholar of the Rwandan genocide argues that while a genocide and a pandemic are very different, the experiences of Rwanda’s survivors may provide lessons on how to heal from pandemic trauma.
Rwanda’s presidential couple at the 2021 genocide commemoration.
SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images
A survey of the commemorations since 2014 reveals the politicking behind the writing of history and Rwanda’s place in the world.
Paul Rusesabagina, chairman of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change political party.
In a political environment as polarised as Rwanda’s, there is no room for moderates and no space for critical voices.
Picture dated 12 June 1994 showing an Interahamwe Hutu militiaman holding a machete in Gitarama, center Rwanda.
Alexander Joe/AFP
Between 1992 and 1994, the former regime is said to have imported 581 tonnes of machetes into Rwanda. This figure appears to establish that the genocide was planned. But is this number accurate?
Burundi’s president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye signs a condolence book for Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Photo by Evrard Ngendakumana/Xinhua via Getty)
The sudden death of Burundi’s former president, Pierre Nkurunziza, marks the end of a long reign, characterised by violent political crises.