Out now! Summary Report: Workshop on the Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain www.ias.edu/sites/defaul... The report highlights how AI’s expansion is tied to critical minerals, energy, water, land, and labor—and why interdisciplinary approaches are essential for AI governance.🧵

Can’t wait to read this!

Last week, the US brokered a peace deal between Congo and Rwanda. As in many previous agreement, the dismantling of the FDLR figures prominently. If you like to dive deeper into why that may prove complicated, have a look at my recent essay about the group…

A true intellectual treat and privilege to participate in this timely workshop convened by @alondra.bsky.social @tcarayannis.bsky.social and Marie-Thérèse Png last week under Albert Einstein’s perennial sights at IAS.

New report on how the outsourcing of warfare has become an ever more dominant feature of conflict in eastern Congo — with its very own protracted logics but not entirely unlike other theatres of contemporary wars. Read on and download below. www.ebuteli.org/publications...

Right on time for Labour Day, my latest piece of work which investigates the interplay of violent conflict, economic governance and the politics of conflict in eastern Congo through the prism of the FDLR’s “nonconventional logistics”. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Timely piece. Open Doors, some type of a messianic misinformation outlet, has also been instrumental in propagating the 12 February fake massacre of Christians reported from eastern Congo’s Beni area. Happy Easter everyone!

On this day in 2017, Michael J. Sharp and Zaida Catalán were assassinated while investigating war crimes in Congo’s Kasai region. Most people behind this political murder enjoy impunity until today, just as much as others involved in killings in the region for over three decades.

Ali Kony was supposed to succeed his father Joseph Kony at the helm of the LRA. He acted as the LRA's 'foreign affairs minister', but decided to escape.This is a story about Ali, and what the LRA still means today. My article in @newhumanitarian.bsky.social www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2025...

#Germany perfectly aligning with global trends in tonight’s post-election TV shows. Election winners (except one…🌹) agitating in favour of breaking existing international and national law, losers timidly defending it.

Germany — Today is a good day to vote against Nazis, and anyone abetting or supporting them.

“[…] Against this backdrop, the current escalation seems increasingly reminiscent of the turmoil and regional conflagration of the 1990s.” Written a year ago, where are we now? newleftreview.org/sidecar/post... @newleftreview.bsky.social

If you’ve never been there and all you read is the headlines you’d be forgiven for thinking that the DRC is just a basket case but for all its problems - and there are many - Bukavu is really one of the most beautiful places.

This morning, M23 entered #Bukavu and took control of key locations including the governor’s residence and Ruzizi 1 border crossing. Amidst broader confusion, M23 entry had been erroneously reported since Friday night owing to inconclusive videos circulating on social media.

Yesterday, I briefed the European Parliament on the escalating crisis in eastern Congo. The session can be streamed here: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Version française de notre analyse, avec @judithverweijen.bsky.social, du focus parfois exclusif et malsain sur les ressources naturelles dans la couverture de l’escalade des conflits dans l’est du Congo. www.jeuneafrique.com/1657155/poli...

Mainstream discourse on conflict in eastern #Congo overemphasizes the role of natural resources. This precludes a more solid and thorough analysis overall. @judithverweijen.bsky.social and I explain how and why 👇🏼

M23’s resurgence is just one piece of a much larger regional crisis. Centre Fellow @ethuin.bsky.social explains the dynamics at play in the #EasternCongo in our latest rapid insight piece: www.armedgroupscentre.org/m23drc-vogel

Heureux d’avoir contribué au dernier article de la toujours excellente @justinebrabant.bsky.social

In a new Q&A piece for the Centre, Fellow @ethuin.bsky.social unpacks the complexities of the #M23 conflict and the broader crisis in the #EasternDRC. Read it here: www.armedgroupscentre.org/m23drc-vogel

Just deleted my previous tweet citing an RFI-reported OCHA number of 3000 killed in #Goma last week. I am told this number may not be wrong but also that the current state of oversight does neither allow to confirm or infirm this count.

🇨🇩 Conflit au Kivu : la crainte de l’escalade Il y a quelques jours, le groupe armé M23 s’emparait de Goma. La prise de la ville est-elle un tournant dans le conflit entre la RDC et le Rwanda ? Quelles conséquences pour les civils ? 🎧 @franceculture.fr www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Having taken control of key parts of #Goma (perhaps still a little early to talk in absolute terms), M23 and allies are now progressing in South Kivu, reducing distance to #Kavumu airport where important contingents of FARDC and Burundian forces have been concentrating recently.

Fighting continues this morning in several parts of #Goma as further M23 troops move in from western side (and seem to gain ground for now). Ambulances caught in crossfire. In parallel, demonstrators have attacked embassies in #Kinshasa, torching the French & Rwandan premises.

So tonight I am not sharing any updates on #Goma because anything I followed up on in the last few hours I wasn’t able to verify or triangulate beyond reasonable doubt. Except perhaps that there is much less shooting in town tonight than during the day, and very little internet.

With the arrival of the #M23 in the city of Goma, the Congo crisis has entered a next stage and level of intensification. Many wonder why this could happen. In an analysis written a few months ago @ethuin.bsky.social and I provide some background.

This morning, #Goma emerges in limbo with an unclear, highly dynamic situation. A wealth of footage circulates (mostly unverified), showing either M23 and Rwandan forces on one side, and FARDC and wazalendo on the other. Skirmishes are underway in various parts of town.

M23 troops further advancing towards downtown #Goma tonight, including airport. Many FARDC fleeing and/or in surrender talks, but heavy fighting (involving wazalendo?) in some areas, no sight of European contractors.

Reports on M23 troops entering northern #Goma in parallel to ongoing Security Council meeting. Here, stills from Bénédiction fuel station in Monigi, 2.5km from Goma airport. Tonight could be decisive, eyes on eastern #Congo

Fighting resumed this morning around Goma (shelling in Rusayo and combats between Monigi and Kibati). Goma airport has been closed by government authorities for the time being. Latest AFC (M23) communiqué declares “closure of airspace” over Goma.

The most recent #M23 (AFC) communiqué calls on #Congo troops to lay down arms within 48h and for UN troops to take neutral stance. Sources on all sides say move onto #Goma within the next 2 days is among possible scenarios. Security Council has called emergency meeting for Monday.

Yesterday night’s fighting west of Goma left at least 3 SADC peacekeepers dead (informal sources say more, incl. perhaps UN peacekeepers too) and dozens wounded. A UN APC was destroyed. North of Goma, M23 made a move into the city’s outskirts, but seem to have retreated again. 1/2

After last week’s heavy clashes in southern Masisi (including confrontation between two foreign armies on Congolese soil) with M23 taking Minova and other places, clashes resumed around Goma in the past two days. 1/2

Whatever goes through your mind, @mellomusicgroup.bsky.social never fails. open.spotify.com/track/0QM5BN...

“Such narratives tend to reduce Africa to a simple recipient body of foreign policies,” say researchers @ethuin.bsky.social and Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka #DRC

I spoke to @spiegel.de on why conflicts in eastern Congo are so intractable and why the current escalation is highly worrying and needs a serious reckoning with the underlying, often under-appreciated political drivers.

Les récits progressistes ou réactionnaires "tendent à réduire l’ #Afrique à un simple réceptacle de politiques extérieures", écrivent les chercheurs @ethuin.bsky.social & Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka. Une analyse passionnante qui décortique comment l'Occident dépolitise les luttes en #RDC #Congo #Kinshasa

There is many ways to disapprove of Elon’s fascist becoming but if Tesla ever designs a rice cooker, think of me.

Ironiquement et malgré lui, #Macron est devenu avec son mépris le meilleur allié de tous ceux qui veulent la fin de la domination de la France sur ses anciennes colonies d'#Afrique subsaharienne !

Meanwhile, M23 have taken Masisi town without much resistance.

After lots of movement in Lubero recently, things are gearing up West of Goma again. M23 are progressing in Masisi area, taking Katale and Lushebere in the past 24h, a stone’s throw from Masisi town. Numerous defections reported among pro-government Nyatura groups. #Congo #Kivu

Intractable Crisis by Centre Expert @ethuin.bsky.social 🔗https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/intractable-crisis

Looking to get caught up on the most impactful research on armed groups in 2024? Check out our Essential Reads of 2024, featuring standout books & articles selected by our Experts and Co-Directors 🧵👇

#OperationKeba uncovers chilling details of the #DRC army’s planned crackdown on 30 August 2023 in Goma: unarmed protesters shot in cold blood, survivors hunted down, bodies dragged without care, dumped in morgues, and left to rot for weeks. #DRCongo www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZp...

That’s a lot of money for low-level auxiliaries… 🤦🏻‍♂️

Europe has abdicated decency in its foreign policy. It's all about domestic consumption; it's all about the far-right; it's all about killing progressive ideals - just when Syrians showed to the world what resistance to tyranny looks like

A much needed and awaited book on a region and a topic marred by longstanding contested narratives and a sprawling polarization in recent years.

This promises to be an incisive, necessary and substantive investigation. We have seen little of that in the past few violent years in the region.

Nonchalantly equating racist, fascist right-wing extremists with a democratic left alliance (despite a few morons here and there and regular uninformed foreign policy takes) is probably the single biggest mistake of mainstream analyses of French politics.

For all of those considering attending the European Conference on African Studies in Prague next June, see if your research fits our panel ! Lamine Savané (University of Ségou) and I are convening a panel called "Digital Platforms and Armed Insecurity in African Crisis Ecologies".