Kenya's political meltdown in the aftermath of the contentious 2007 elections tested the solidity and sturdiness of regional mechanisms tasked with conflict resolution in East Africa. Despite years of elaborate attempts to build diverse institutions for early warning, conflict prevention and management within the rubric of the East African Community (EAC) and the I...

Road maps have become popular in recent African efforts to mediate and resolve conflicts. The African Union singly, or in concert with Regional Economic Communities and international actors, has invoked road maps as mediation and conflict resolution templates in Darfur, Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and North-South Sudan. Although they are growing in significan...

Peacebuilding is a key concept in efforts to reconstruct African states emerging from conflicts. At heart, it captures the whole array of activities associated with state-and nation-building in addition to building the foundations for local ownership of these processes. Popularised by the UN Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali in the early 1990s, peacebuilding ...