Rebel movements in the DRC

Despite a generally valiant effort on the part of the United Nations (UN) since 1999 to bring peace and stability to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the country continues to be destabilised by rebel forces. These armed movements pose a constant threat to the fragile transition in the DRC, and security in the country is continuously undermined. This article examines rebel forces in the DRC from two perspectives. Firstly, it examines such movements as a manifestation of sub-national terrorism. Secondly, it examines armed movements from the perspective of so-called ‘ungoverned spaces’. The view taken in this article supports the scholarly insight and argument that in countries such as the DRC, armed movements and militias are filling power vacuums that are the result of the inability and lack of military capacity of weak states to fight these movements effectively. Specifically, the eastern and north-eastern parts of the DRC have been major conflict zones where sub-national terrorists employ terror as a strategy. In this context, the DRC is severely affected by terrorism – a phenomenon in the DRC that is intimately linked to the failure to effect sustained development and to consolidate accountable and effective governance.     

Ungoverned space? Examining the FARC's interactions with local populations in Northern Ecuador

The Ecuadorian state has long been absent from the regions along its northern border with Colombia. I argue that this lack of state presence has allowed non-state armed groups and criminal organizations space to not only operate from these areas, but also, to challenge and change the relationship between local populations and the Ecuadorian state. After reviewing theoretical approaches to concepts of changing security paradigms and ungoverned space, the article details the conditions that have allowed armed groups, specifically the FARC, to take advantage of the lack of state presence along Ecuador's northern border.     

初中生情绪不安全感与攻击行为的关系

本文基于情绪安全感理论,探讨初中生情绪不安全感与攻击行为的关系,采用问卷调查的方式,对新疆某市区274名初中生进行调查。结果显示:①初三年级间接攻击水平显著高于初一年级(F=4.41,p<0.05);②初一、初二年级情绪不安全感水平显著高于初三年级(F=8.31,p<0.001);③初中生情绪不安全感与攻击行为之间存在显著正相关(r=0.32,p<0.01)。调查结果表明,降低初中生的情绪不安全感水平,有助于减少其攻击行为的发生。     

Recruitment and abuse of trafficked children in south-west Nigeria

This article examines the recruitment and transportation of internally trafficked children from Benue State in the north-central geo-political zone of Nigeria to Oyo State in the south-western zone of Nigeria. The study is essentially qualitative: with the aid of the snowball sampling technique, in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with drivers, employers and trafficking agents in two recipient communities in Ibadan. The findings show that human rights abuses manifest at the recruitment, transportation and destination phases. The human rights abuses include the recruitment of underage children for domestic work outside their immediate family environments; transportation under inhumane conditions; restriction of movement at traffickers' ‘warehouses’; non-disclosure of amount payable for the services of domestic servants by agents/traffickers; exclusion of domestic servants in wage negotiations; and violence by employers. In view of these, there is a need for the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons to strengthen its internal trafficking campaign.     

AFRICAN REGIONAL ORGANISATION' PEACE OPERATIONS

This paper reviews recent developments among African regional organisations in undertaking peacekeeping operations, as well as in preparing for future missions. It focuses on those that have been the most active: the Organisation of African Unity/African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community. The paper goes on to briefly describe and analyse the activities of the French, UK, and US capacity-building programmes designed to develop African peacekeeping capacities. The author then identifies some specific concerns and recommends actions to help meet today's challenges. The paper concludes with a short analysis of African organisations' capacities and proclivities to provide a peacekeeping force for Sudan.     

Homophobic legislation and its impact on human security

Despite sustained opposition, legislation criminalising homosexuality persists and threatens human security in Africa in numerous ways. This paper explores the circumstances around the enactment of new anti-homosexual legislation in Nigeria and Uganda, examining five categories of insecurity faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the context of these laws: physical violence; extortion and blackmail; arbitrary arrest and detention; displacement from home; and loss of work.     

复数系在加权Hardy空间中的完备性

对复数系在Banach空间Ha^p（P≥1）中的完备性给出了充要条件,其中Ha^p为上半平面C^＋={z：lmz〉0}中的加权Hardy空间。     

State fragility and violent uprisings in Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and its transformation into a terrorist organisation has dominated recent discourse in the fields of political science and security studies, both within and without the socio-politico enclave known as Nigeria. Much of the discussion has centred on the extra-judicial execution of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, which purportedly intensified the radicalisation of the group, and whether or not the sect receives operational and/or financial support from foreign terrorist associations. The interest of others has been to forecast the possibility of the internationalisation of the group's activities. This paper aligns with those whose interest is to identify and proffer ways of resolving factors that predisposed the Nigerian state to the levels of violence perpetrated by Boko Haram, with a view to averting much greater crises in the future. It adopts some historicism in demonstrating that the responsibility for the deepening insecurity in the country resides in the Nigerian state structure, which has often been seen as willing to sacrifice the well-being of the many for the benefit of a few. On the whole, the paper utilises state fragility as the framework of analysis by identifying the incapacity of the state in effective service delivery, which has as a result created a situation of mass unemployment and extreme poverty that has fanned the Boko Haram uprising. It concludes that a sustainable solution to the crisis lies in addressing the root causes of inequality, unemployment and poverty, with which most Nigerians, particularly in the north, subsist.     

‘The only good jihadist is a dead jihadist’:Boko Haram and de-radicalization around Lake Chad

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the shortcomings of the “de-radicalization doctrine” in sub-Saharan Africa. The issues raised are illustrated by the war against Boko Haram, which involves Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Relying on interviews with security officers, insurgents, civil servants, displaced people, humanitarian workers and Muslim and Christian clerics in Nigeria, Niger and Chad since 2005, the investigation shows that the four states focused on repression rather than demobilisation programs in prison or outdoors. The Boko Haram crisis is mainly a story of mismanagement. The article thus challenges the assumptions of the “de-radicalization doctrine” in Muslim Africa South of the Sahara. First, attempts to de-radicalize jihadi terrorists tend to focus too much on religious fanaticism and the exegesis of the Quran. Secondly, they are neither feasible nor efficient. Finally, they obscure priorities that are more important to counter extremism and demobilize insurgents.