Regional Political Leadership and Policy Integration in Great Lakes Region of Africa

Abstract

For the past two decades, following the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Great Lakes Region of Africa has become a conflict-ridden zone marked by mass violations of human rights and political instabilities. Part of these instabilities and violence is due to the lack of strong and stable political leadership and institutions in many of the countries in the region. In 1996, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was plagued by the uprising of the rebel movement called the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre. This movement was a coalition of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, along with Congolese people. However, the AFDL victory was short-lived since the coalition parties broke up their alliance in 1998, which led to a new cycle of conflict which continued to destabilize the DRC to date with its Eastern provinces being most affected. In addition to conflict within the DRC, political instability and crisis of legitimacy of political leadership in South Sudan, Burundi, and the Central African Republic have also exacerbated the instability in the region. In this chapter, the author argues that peace and stability in the Great Lakes Region of Africa would depend on how best several facets of policies are integrated into one operational framework for peace and stability.