Thierry VIRCOULON
Associate Research Fellow, Coordinator of the Observatory of Central and Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa Center
Research Interests:
- Risk and conflict analysis
- Security sector reform
- Governance of natural resources
- Central Africa, Southern Africa, Great Lakes region
- Relations between China and Africa
To create a political shift that draws a line under conflict once and for all, it is not always enough to draft a democratic constitution and call elections.
Since 2013 and the victory of the Congolese armed forces and the United Nations over the last serious threat against the regime - the 23 March (M23) movement-, the question of the relevance of the UN presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is raised again.
Since achieving independence in 1962, Burundi has experienced several episodes of civil war, the last of which came to end when the Arusha Accord was signed in 2000. The gradual return to peace in the wake of the Arusha Accord has been jeopardised by Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement on 25th...
Piracy and armed robbery at sea are a threat to security in the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf of Guinea.
For the new geopolitical reality called “Chinafrica”, the future may not be destined to be as radiant as the official win-win rhetoric would have us believe. Although the beginning of the century was notable for the exponential development of Sino-African trade (which grew from $10 ...
Nowadays, the Central African Republic (CAR) is a country dependent on international aid.
In the course of its institutional development and the expansion of its activities, the European Union (EU) has tended to pile up rather than to rationalize its policies, creating a financial tool per objective. As a result, the European funds have become a labyrinth, for which management...
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 32 years of dictatorship and almost ten years of war have bled the country dry and left its administration incapable of providing the population with basic services and the government incapable of applying or even formulating public policy.
Following the conflict in Ituri (1999-2003), the International Community deployed different peacebuilding programs in this north-eastern district of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Built around a concept of democratic transition at the national level, these programs have not always...
Summary: Following repeated bouts of political violence, which were exacerbated by the presidential and legislative elections of 29 March 2008, opposition members and the government of Zimbabwe undertook lengthy and difficult negotiations to put an end to the unrest. These negotiations...