Local Security Perception in the Sahel – Q1 Reports

Insecurity in the Sahel region of Africa stems from multiple severe, violent local and trans-national conflicts that continue to expand to new areas in the region. These conflicts strongly deteriorate the quality of life of local populations. In order to understand the complex causes and effects of these conflicts, listening to local communities is crucial.

Together with Just Future’s local partners in Mali and Niger, Alliance partner SIPRI surveys local populations bi-annually over the course of 5 years to glean information about perceptions of safety and security, and whether communities in various areas feel protected from violence. The Q1 perceptions reports for Mali and Niger linked below resulted from this exercise.

The information from these perception studies is used by communities in their dialogue with local authorities to discuss security threats and how to resolve them. The data is also used by Just Future partners in their analyses, discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN, regional bodies (ECOWAS, AU, EU), embassies and national governments. Using this evidence base, the Alliance lobbies for policy changes at various levels, from the local through the regional to the global level, that promotes and improves safety and protection for civilians in Mali and Niger.

Below the links to the Q1 Report for Mali:

Below the links to the Q1 Report for Niger:

Shari’a and Pashtunwali: Implications for Afghan Women

Just Future partners publish a new report on the interface between Pashtunwali and Shari’a law in Afghanistan, examining the effects on the position of women and proposing recommendations for engagement with the Taliban.

After the start of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in May 2021, the Taliban intensified its multi-fronted campaign to overcome the Afghan security forces and gain control of large swaths of the country. This intensification culminated in the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021, when the Taliban entered Kabul and claimed control over the entire country.

Since early September 2021, the Taliban has tightened its control and announced that it will, on a temporary basis, adopt the 1964 Constitution with the caveat that provisions in the Constitution that they interpret as being incompatible with Shari’a will not apply.

“[W]e are ruled by men who offer us nothing but the [Qurʾan], even though many of them cannot read… we are in despair.”

Dominating the narrative and concern of the international community during the evacuation and its aftermath has been the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan under Taliban rules on the place and role of women in society. The Taliban, however, is far from monolithic nor is it bound to the manner in which it ruled Afghanistan during its 1996-2001 iteration. To better understand and plan interventions to support Afghan women, this research examined the impact of the Taliban rule on the place of women in Afghan society through three dimensions. These were:

  1. The extent to which Shari’a-based law making and practice by the Taliban will have foundations in edicts of Pashtunwali (regardless of their narrative),
  2. The extent to which normative conflicts between Pashtunwali and Shari’a can be resolved, and
  3. The extent to which the rule of law – based on Shari’a, Pashtunwali, or a combination – would be adhered to in the different and diverse communities throughout the country given the long history of a weak centralized rule of law in Afghanistan.

This report examines these question, enabling a greater understanding of the interface between Pashtunwali and Shari’a in theory, and providing recommendations for the international community’s engagement with the Taliban.

Read the report below:

Read the policy brief here:

Cover photo credit: Daniel Arrhakis – Shadows of Betrayal (https://flic.kr/p/2mspEcM)

Archiving and preserving evidence of mass crimes in DRC

In South Kivu, Just Future partner organization SOS Informations Juridiques Multisectorielles (SOS-IJM) trained a group of legal clinic facilitators of on archiving and preserving evidence of mass crimes. The training was organized as part of the Just Future program implemented in the DRC in partnership with Cordaid.

In his opening remarks, Justin Bahirwe Mutabunga, coordinator of SOS-IJM, noted that the training aims to strengthen the capacity of participants to develop strategies to safeguard key evidence of mass crimes. By preserving this evidence, victims of massacres and violence committed in South Kivu province, and in the DRC in general, will be better able to seek justice.

For Ms. Huguette Matabaro, who leads SOS-IJMs lobbying and advocacy, the legal clinics are alternative mechanisms of conflict resolution. By enabling the safeguarding and archiving of testimonials and other evidence of crimes committed in South Kivu over the past 20 years on behalf of victims, the legal clinics will contribute significantly to transitional justice in South Kivu.

“We expect that the legal clinic facilitators will start collecting data and evidence and preserve it well, so that if the situation in DRC appears before the International Criminal Court or another tribunal, this evidence will be presented and victims will be able to obtain justice,” she said.

“After this training, we will follow up with data collection in legal clinics. And we won’t only collect data, but also the archive and document it,” concluded Matabaro.

The participants of the workshop trained in different techniques of collection, transmission, storage and sharing of evidence of mass crimes. They exchanged on secure communication and digital security for data protection. The workshop offered an opportunity for participants to strengthen the security of their platforms and digital tools, including social network accounts, phones and laptops.

“We were very pleased with the subject matter that was very well chosen in relation to the theme,” noted a participant.

Mr. Dieudonné Marhegane said he benefited a lot from this training. As a human rights defender, the lessons received will help him to protect and preserve his data for posterity and to share them with people further afield.

“For our work as archivists, I know that with electronic archiving, we can now easily reach our data. Before we did the archiving manually. Now can keep them online in servers, through Gmail or Drive for example. This will help us to have evidence available and share with people elsewhere, “he said.

The next step will be the gradual collection, documentation and archiving of data. These activities will take place in legal clinics.

Local Perceptions of (In)security in the Sahel

Insecurity in the Sahel region of Africa stems from multiple severe, violent local and trans-national conflicts that continue to expand to new areas in the region. These conflicts strongly deteriorate the quality of life of local populations. In order to understand the complex causes and effects of these conflicts, listening to local communities is crucial.

Together with Just Future’s local partners in Mali and Niger, Alliance partner SIPRI surveys local populations bi-annually over the course of 5 years to glean information about perceptions of safety and security, and whether communities in various areas feel protected from violence. These surveys have resulted in the perception studies for Mali and Niger linked below.

The information from these perception studies is used by communities in their dialogue with local authorities to discuss security threats and how to resolve them. The data is also used by Just Future partners in their analyses, discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN, regional bodies (ECOWAS, AU, EU), embassies and national governments. Using this evidence base, the Alliance lobbies for policy changes at various levels, from the local through the regional to the global level, that promotes and improves safety and protection for civilians in Mali and Niger.

Below the links to the Survey and Policy Paper on Mali:

Below the links to the Survey and Policy Paper on Niger:

Light Weapons and DDR in DRC

This paper is the final report of the study on “The issues and challenges of light weapons control and the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, prepared by Securitas Congo and the African Security Sector Network (ASSN). 

Based on surveys and interviews with a random sample of 1000 people and a dozen discussions with the various key players involved in arms control in the DRC, this study is meant to support Congolese government’s efforts to set up strategies against armed violence and light weapons availability in the DRC.

Les-défis-et-les-enjeux-du-contrôle-des-armes-légères-et-des-processus-de-Désarmement-Démobilisation-et-RéintégrationRéinsertion-en-République-Démocra

After the Eruption: Hardships of Women IDPs in Goma

We had to increase the number of human resources in the emergency, but the men were more available than the women. But those women who made themselves available did a remarkable job.


On Saturday May 22, 2021 at 6 pm the night sky suddenly darkened as Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo erupted, spewing molten lava into the city and across the city’s highways, spreading panic among Goma’s 2 million residents.

The last time this infamously unstable volcano erupted in 2002, it left hundreds dead and more than 100.000 homeless.

Memories of this harrowing disaster led to chaotic scenes as waves of crowds pushed into the streets, fleeing the mayhem in various directions.  The wealthy piled their families into cars. Most, including the elderly, women, and children walked, carrying mattresses and whatever valuables they could carry on their back, making their way to Bukavu, in South Kivu province, towards the neighboring town of Ginsenyi in Rwanda or to Sake village.

By the evening the lava had finally stopped at Buhene, just short of northern Goma. But  the devastation didn’t stop there. The city was hit  by a series of high magnitude earthquakes following the eruption. Days later, provincial authorities warned of potential explosions resulting from the volcano’s magma meeting methane gas escaping from Lake Kivu, and advised the population to evacuate immediately. The human flow out of Goma continued as people desperately sought to flee the calamitous situation and struggled to find food and water for their families. Many of the 32 people who died in the wake of the eruption lost their lives in the ensuing evacuation.

The disaster has exacerbated the instability stemming from two decades of conflict and violence in DRC, particularly in the North Kivu region, where Goma is located. More than two million people have been displaced due to this violence alone. An additional 450.000 people have fled Goma in the days following the eruption, seeking shelter, food, water, and sanitation.

Gender and Disaster Management

Like everywhere, women in Goma bear the brunt of the constellation of instability stemming from conflict and natural disasters. But women are more than just victims. Women play essential roles in relief and disaster management efforts. Female community members are often best positioned to identify the needs of the elderly, children and other vulnerable members of the community. Yet cultural restrictions and patriarchal biases in DRC prevent women from playing these essential roles.

In Sake, where over 150.000 people from Goma have taken refuge, disaster sites have been established in schools, churches and private lands. Women are largely absent from leadership roles in these sites. Men resist being managed by women and women themselves opt out of such roles because they have internalized assumptions that women should solely focus on taking care of their own families. 

“Women were not always available,” explained Dr. Lucien Ngaba, the Chief medical Officer at Kirotsche Health Zone. “We had to increase the number of human resources in the emergency, but the men were more available than the women. But those women who made themselves available did a remarkable job.”

Madame Annie Masandi was one of the few women managers working with displaced people. She is the president of a mosque site, in charge of over 1000 people, including nearly 400 women and over 500 children. Madame Annie deplored the way that women removed themselves from leadership roles and men dismissed outright women’s capacity to be leaders. 

“Some men say that women can’t lead us,” she exclaimed indignantly. Women are also excluded from security committees because men think they lack the “strength” to defend the site.

Humanitarian Efforts

There has been some progress in humanitarian organizations consulting women in food and hygienic kit distributions.

“Before the distributions, especially for menstrual hygiene and sexual needs of women and girls, humanitarian organizations consulted us,” said Annie, a woman in the area. “There is a great sign of consideration and I assure you that all my requests for people on the site have been answered for 80%.”

But more needs to be done to empower women and local community leaders in the provision of aid. According to Dr. Lucien, decisions by certain humanitarian organizations to provide health kits directly to communities rather than working with health zone managers have weakened their ability to monitor the distribution of aid properly. At times, these organizations lack sufficient knowledge of the contexts and communities, leading to local actors taking advantage of the aid distribution and leaving displaced people forgotten or at a disadvantage. Local residents of Sake reportedly benefited from aid that was meant to go to the displaced Goma population.

Madam Sifa,[1] a disaster victim and mother of nine  said, “more than 80% of the aid went to the local community. We know that Sake has many mai-mai,[2] but if we report them, our lives can be in danger.”

Engendering Inclusive Disaster Management and Conflict Resolution

From the moment the provincial government assessed it was safe to return home, the residents of Goma have slowly been trickling back into the city. Many return to nothing. Their homes have been destroyed and they have little left. The government is attempting to set up sites to accommodate the returning population, but locals are concerned that these efforts will be insufficient and those that are left behind may resort to violence, causing a flare up of latent conflict dynamics.

 “The conflict triggers will always be there,” says Ms. Annie, “If measures are not adapted, if everyone’s participation is not taken into account, we will have a hard time getting out of it. We need a focal point trained in conflict management permanently in the sites because without experience, such conflicts are likely to escalate.”

Community members, especially women, need to be included in aid distribution to prevent exacerbating conflict dynamics. Strengthening their skills through training, and combining that with their inherent understanding of the context and communities will help to prevent violence and encourage equitable access to aid. More attention must be given to generating opportunities for women to be involved in conflict resolution and disaster management. Without their real involvement, they risk becoming double victims – of patriarchal systems and natural disasters.

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[1] Name changed for security reasons

[2] Armed group