China Builds Dam in Guinea that Raises Displacement Issues

Human Rights Watch published in April 2020 a report titled "'We're Leaving Everything Behind': The Impact of Guinea's Souapiti Dam on Displaced Communities."

China International Water & Electric Corporation is constructing Guinea's 450 megawatt Souapiti dam, which it will then jointly own and operate with the Guinean government. It is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. The report documents the problems construction of the dam has caused for displaced residents' access to land, food, and livelihoods. Human Rights Watch concludes the flawed resettlement process is evidence of the need for Chinese companies, banks, and regulators to ensure that BRI projects and other Chinese overseas investments respect human rights.

Ethiopia: Ethnic Conflict in Harar

Ethiopia Insight posted on 2 January 2019 an analysis titled "Anguish for Harari As Oromo Claim Rights" by William Davison and Leake Tewele.

The ongoing intimidation of Harari property owners by groups of Oromo in the walled city of Harar is the latest ethnic tension in Ethiopia. While Harari victims say they are being dispossessed, some Oromo activists claim historic wrongs need redressing.

Kenyan Elections and Violence in the North

The International Crisis Group published on 19 July 2017 a report titled "Ethnic Contest and Electoral Violence in Northern Kenya" by Abdullahi Abdille.

General elections in Kenya in August could trigger intercommunal fighting. In Isiolo and Marsabit, longstanding tensions primarily pitting the dominant Boran against minority ethnic groups are exacerbated by the electoral contest for county leadership.

Analysis of Kenya's New Chinese Built Railway

The China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies published in June 2017 a research paper titled "African Politics Meets Chinese Engineers: The Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya and East Africa" by Uwe Wissenbach and Yuan Wang.

Kenya's new standard gauge railway between Mombasa and Nairobi was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation and financed largely by credits from China's Export Import Bank. The project has sparked controversy concerning its economic viability, corruption, opaque contracting practices, financing arrangements, and community and labor issues. The paper examines the way Kenyan politics have affected implementation of the standard gauge railway.

Land Use, Ownership and Allocation in Sudan

The Sudan Democracy First Group published in September 2016 a report titled "Land Use, Ownership and Allocation in Sudan: The Challenge of Corruption and Lack of Transparency" by Mohyeldeen E. Taha.

The study focuses on land tenure issues in Sudan, large scale foreign land investments, and the concern that there is a lack of transparency in land policy that leads to corruption.

Land Conflicts in Southern and Central Somalia

The Rift Valley Institute published in 2015 a study titled "Hosts and Guests: A Historical Interpretation of Land Conflicts in Southern and Central Somalia" by Lee Cassanelli, University of Pennsylvania.

Cassanelli explains that many of the land conflicts are rooted in long histories of competition over land and water between neighboring communities, or in struggles between local landholders and a predatory state.  International actors attempting to address land conflicts tend to invoke universally acknowledged rights of restitution of property seized unlawfully from individuals and groups.  Circumstances in Somalia, however, make it extremely difficult to apply international norms in the allocation of rights and protection to those who have been forcibly deprived of their homes and properties.

He concludes that by drawing on indigenous and historically-grounded patterns of resource sharing by "hosts" and "guests", it may be possible gradually to reinvigorate the notion--rooted in local and Islamic tradition--that land and resources are gifts from God to all Somalis, and in doing so diminish a reliance on clan exclusivity as the primary principle for defining rights to territory.

East Africa's Oil and Gas Boom - Promise and Peril

The Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings and Oxfam America hosted on 20 February 2014 a half-day conference in Washington titled "East Africa's Oil and Gas Boom -- Promise and Peril."  The conference focused on recent gas and oil discoveries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique and their potential to transform the economies of East Africa.  The panelists also considered how these discoveries can exacerbate local conflict, fuel corruption, negatively impact the environment, and disrupt local communities and livelihoods.

The three panel sessions can be viewed on webcast. The participants are:

Panel 1: Protecting Rights, Protecting the Environment, Preventing Conflict

• Maria Ramos, senior program advisor, Oxfam America
• Ikal Angelei, executive director, Friends of Lake Turkana
• Bennett Freeman, senior vice president, Calvert Asset Management and trustee, Institute for Human Rights and Business
• Emily Greenspan, senior policy advisor, Oxfam America
• Peter Veit, acting director, Governance Center of Excellence, World Resources Institute
• Sandy Sash, vice president, Safety, Sustainability and External Affairs, Tullow Oil

Panel 2: Transformative Wealth, Transforming Economies?

• Ian Gary, senior policy manager, Oxfam America
• Prosper Ngowi, professor of economics, Mzumbe University in Tanzania
• Charles Wanguhu, coordinator, Kenya CSO Platform on Oil and Gas
• Godber Tumushabe, Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment in Uganda
• Mohamed Amin Adam, executive director, African Center for Energy Policy in Ghana

Panel 3: Supporting the Way Forward -- Business and Policy Responses to Challenges and Opportunities

• Mwangi S. Kimenyi, director, Africa Growth Initiative
• Simon Thompson, chairman, Tullow Oil
• Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, lecturer in African politics, Oxford University
• Carlos Pascual, special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, U.S. Department of State