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This Week in Peace #104: October 31

By
Tara Abhasakun
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A village in South Sudan, photo by Diego Delso via Wikipedia.

This week, still no peace deal for Pakistan and Afghanistan. UN Investigators warn South Sudan could slide back into full-scale conflict. US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and UAE form ‘quad’ on Sudan.

Still No Peace Deal for Pakistan and Afghanistan

After weeks of fighting, Pakistan and Afghanistan still have not arrived at a peace deal. The conflict between the two countries intensified when Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Kabul on October 9, 2025. Pakistan says that Pakistani Taliban militants who have increased attacks on Pakistan operate from Afghanistan. 

Pakistan was a major supporter of the Afghan Taliban in 2001 following the US invasion of Afghanistan. However, relations soured after Pakistan accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, which has launched an insurgency against Pakistan’s government. 

Following the latest round of fighting, Qatar hosted a first round of peace talks on October 19.  Delegations from both countries have met for talks in Istanbul, Turkey. However, the talks have hit a wall, and on October 28, each country’s state media blamed the other for the failure to reach a deal. 

While delegations from Afghanistan and Pakistan remain in Turkey, it was not clear whether there would be a fourth day of talks. Pakistani security officials told The Associated Press that there was a deadlock due to Afghanistan not accepting what it described as legitimate demands that Afghan soil not be used against Pakistan.

UN Investigators Warn South Sudan Could Slide Back into Full-Scale Conflict

UN investigators warn that South Sudan could slide back into full-scale conflict. On October 29, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan addressed the UN General Assembly regarding armed clashes, political detentions, and widespread human rights violations.

Commissioner Barney Afako told the assembly that South Sudan’s political transition is “falling apart.” Since March, the commission said, fighting has intensified and displaced over 370,000 civilians internally, and forced many more to flee to neighboring countries. Across the country, a total of around 2.6 million people remain internally displaced due to violence over many years. Meanwhile, around 600,000 have become refugees. 

Afako said, “The ceasefire is not holding, political detentions have become a tool of repression, the peace agreement’s key provisions are being systematically violated, and the Government forces are using aerial bombardments in civilian areas. All indicators point to a slide back toward another deadly war.”

After the country experienced a civil war in 2013 which killed over 400,000 people, South Sudan’s fragile peace has been deteriorating this year, despite a peace agreement signed in 2018. Amnesty International on May 28 reported that violence had killed 180 people between March and mid-April amid deepening divisions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar. On September 21, at least 48 people were killed and over 152 injured in fighting between South Sudan’s army and opposition forces in Burebiey. 

US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and UAE Unite form ‘Quad’ on Sudan

On October 24, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and United Arab Emirates have united to form a Joint Operational Committee or ‘quad’ on Sudan. The comittee aims to secure an urgent humanitarian truce and permanent ceasefire, as well as halt external support for the warring factions, Sudan Tribune reported.

The committee’s statement describes a roadmap including: an initial three-month humanitarian truce to allow for rapid aid delivery, followed by a permanent ceasefire, and concluding with a nine-month transitional period leading to “an independent, civilian-led government with broad-based legitimacy and accountability”.

Since the ‘quad’’s formation, commenters have questioned whether it will be effective, or whether it will be simply another failed attempt to bring peace to Sudan.

Keywords: Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Quad, Trump, US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Istanbul, Istanbul talks, peace, conflict, conflict resolution

The DRC’s Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, a New Green Economy for Peace and Sustainable Development

By
Anicet Kimonyo
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Photo by Anicet Kimonyo.

Armed conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are fueling poverty and accelerating environmental degradation.

In North Kivu province, home to Virunga National Park, one of the oldest in Africa, nearly 50% of the park’s territory is now under the control of armed groups, according to an assessment by the Provincial Directorate of North Kivu of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) from April 2025. These groups include the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC)-M23 rebels, Islamist groups, and various smaller local militias, as well as Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which has members who took part in the Rwanda Genocide in 1994.

This armed presence around the park deprives the green economy of an estimated US$30 million a year in revenue, diverted to rebel groups, according to the report. This perpetuates a cycle of violence, to the detriment of biodiversity and local development.

The DRC has officially launched, by decree, the “Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor” (CVKK), a colossal project that aims to combine reforestation, economic development, and the stabilization of conflict-ravaged regions. The initiative, presented by authorities as a major contribution to the fight against climate change, will nevertheless require the government to overcome numerous structural and political challenges.

Signed on January 15, 2025 by Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, Decree No. 25/01 gives substance to one of the largest greening initiatives ever conceived in Central Africa. Spanning nearly 550,000 square kilometers, including 285,000 square kilometers of primary forests and 60,000 square kilometers of peatlands, the CVKK aims to transform areas weakened by decades of violence into poles of sustainable growth.

Photo by Anicet Kimonyo.

“The CVKK project is considered one of the largest initiatives [in the world] on the climate issue,” says Emmanuel de Mérode, director of the ICCN. “The Congo is providing good news, and this will continue to be noticed,” he emphasizes.

In addition to protecting the Congo Basin, described as “the world’s largest tropical forest carbon sink,” the corridor is expected to enable the annual transfer of 1 million tons of food from the Kivus to Kinshasa. This will help to feed people impacted by conflict, primarily, and the entire country, considering the agricultural potential of this Green Corridor area. A dedicated fund will be created to develop businesses along the route in renewable energy, agriculture, and logistics. The government estimates the financing needs at US$1 billion over the next three to four years.

The CVKK is structured around several pillars: sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, community forestry, and ecosystem restoration. The stated objective: to create hundreds of thousands of “green” jobs, and legal alternatives to poaching and illegal resource exploitation.

“The corridor provides economic benefits that do not depend on forest destruction, but on sustainable production methods,” explains de Mérode. “Hundreds of thousands of jobs [will be] created thanks to the preservation of species and forests. The communities themselves become conservation agents.”

Photo by Anicet Kimonyo.

In Bas-Uélé, forest administrator Justin Tshipopo welcomes an “opportunity to strengthen community forestry.” He emphasizes the need to take traditional knowledge into account. “Communities have preserved their forests for centuries. These practices must not be forgotten,” he said.

He stresses that the corridor must become a concrete instrument of development in fragile territories, capable of generating economic opportunities and strengthening social cohesion.

Long-term success will depend on the authorities’ ability to sustainably involve local populations, integrate their ancestral knowledge, and ensure impeccable governance. The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor thus presents itself as a crucial test for the DRC’s ecological and economic transition, a challenge worthy of its immense natural resources.

Photo by Anicet Kimonyo.

While the ambitions are lauded, voices are being raised to demand inclusive and transparent implementation. Fanny Minesi, representing the wildlife conservation NGO Friends of Bonobos of Congo (ABC), warns against a purely technocratic approach to the project.

“Our concern is to ensure that communities are not only informed, but also that they consent to the projects and become active participants,” she asserts. “We must ensure that projects are not designed without the communities, and that the private sector, often preoccupied with profit, is not the only one guiding the decisions.”

The success of the CVKK depends on close coordination between the government, conservation agencies, the private sector, and communities. However, land tensions, weak infrastructure, and historical mistrust persist. Some local populations are wary of the project, as they believe the government wants to take their land.

Pilot initiatives in the eastern DRC and Tshopo, however, are showing encouraging results, with a measurable reduction in local violence by armed groups toward civilians, and better protection of Virunga National Park. The corridor’s plans provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of people, including young people, will help to provide more options to them so that they are not pressured to join armed groups due to poverty. 

Already, the DRC launched Climate Week on Monday, October 27, with the aim of bringing together stakeholders in the climate sector to jointly reflect on the issues.

“Without the DRC, there are no sustainable solutions to the global climate crisis, which we have not created elsewhere,” declared the Congolese Minister of the Environment and Climate Economy Marie Nyange Ndambo.

Marie Nyange Ndambo, photo via Ministre de l’Envirnoment.

Continuing her address to the participants of the Congolese National Climate Week, Ndambo clarified that through the Congolese National Climate Week, the DRC aims to unite the voices of civil society, indigenous peoples, and other local and national stakeholders to prepare for COP30, which will be held in Belem, Brazil, next November, with a strong and credible conviction that “reflects our priorities and realities, so that at Belem, the Congo and the Congolese people speak with one voice and affirm that the DRC is ready to assume its role as a climate leader.” 

Nyange added “We want every Congolese to understand that the climate is not a distant issue, it affects our daily realities and therefore protecting the environment is protecting our future.”

Keywords: DRC, Congo, environmental peace, climate change, Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, peace, sustainable development, conflict, conflict resolution, Virunga National Park, North Kivu Province, national parks, green peace, conservation, nature, species, DR Congo, Kinsasha

Can Environmental Diplomacy Build Peace in the Middle East?

By
David Lehrer
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Editor’s note: In wartime, those working for peace are often viewed with suspicion and even hate by those who see peacebuilders as a barrier in their quest to defeat their adversary. Such pressure can make the life of a peacebuilder, working to rehumanize and find non-violent solutions with the other side, difficult. While such difficulties are not at the same scale and depth of human suffering as those directly impacted by the violence, they are nonetheless worth acknowledging and understanding as another aspect of conflict. This is especially because the work of peacebuilders is more important than ever during periods of mass violence and human suffering, as currently witnessed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The Israel-Palestine conflict has brought immense pain and suffering to the peoples of both nations. Violence between Israelis and Palestinians has created intense anger and desires for revenge. Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent war in the Gaza strip have exacerbated such emotions even more, with mistrust and division festering. 

However, one glimmer of hope is that partnerships between Israeli and Palestinian organizations have managed to remain intact in the two years following October 7. Although it hasn’t always been easy, Israeli and Palestinian organizations have successfully continued to collaborate on environmental projects to help better the lives of people in rural West Bank communities, and the Gaza Strip. 

In 2017, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel— which works to advance cross-border environmental cooperation in the face of political conflict— and Damour for Community Development (DCD)— a Palestinian NGO promoting sustainable development in underserviced Palestinian communities—agreed to cooperate on environmental initiatives to improve natural resource management and supply in rural communities. The initiatives aimed to demonstrate that Palestinians and Israelis can work together on mutual environmental concerns, and prove that there are partners for peace on both sides. 

From 2017 to 2023, under the “Track II Environmental Forum”—established by the Arava Institute to identify cross-border environmental challenges that both sides have an interest in addressing—Damour and the Arava Institute worked together to solve these challenges. To address the lack of potable water in Gaza, the Track II Environmental Forum introduced atmospheric water generators which take humidity out of the atmosphere and turn it into high quality drinking water. To address the lack of wastewater treatment and reuse in the West Bank, the Track II Environmental Forum introduced wastewater treatment and reuse systems into Palestinian villages, and negotiated a building permit from the Israeli Civil Administration to the Palestinian Water Authority for a treated wastewater trunkline to bring agricultural water from the Ramallah area down to the Jordan Valley for Palestinian farmers to use. Permits to build inside of Area C, under Israeli military control, are rarely granted to Palestinian entities. 

During this period, the Track II Environmental Forum began to develop a methodology called applied environmental diplomacy, which uses public diplomacy tools to address environmental issues, not just in theory but in practice.  The main principles of applied environmental diplomacy are:

  1. Bottom-up – Top-down process – While much of the work of applied environmental diplomacy is focused on stakeholder engagement with local communities, real change will require both grassroots engagement and government engagement.
  1. Build capacity and resilience of municipalities – Local governments, as opposed to national governments, are often more attuned to the environmental needs of residents, because they are closer to the community and more sensitive to the dissatisfaction of residents when environmental services are unreliable. 
  1. Engage government officials in being part of the solution – Though the focus of applied environmental diplomacy is on solutions for local communities, national governments should not be ignored, because if they are not co-opted early on to be part of the solution, they will become part of the problem.
  1. Enlist international support through embassies and former diplomats – To prioritize cross-border environmental initiatives, international engagement can provide a motivation for decision makers to remove barriers to implementation. In addition, international organizations and foreign governments can provide funding to increase financial feasibility. 
  1. Develop multi-national networks of scientists, practitioners, and emerging leaders (community, women, and youth) – A multi-national network can help to build trust across borders by focusing on practical solutions while building personal relations. 
  1. Propose scalable and replicable regional solutions to strategic development goals based on proofs of concept – Building on the success of pilot demonstrations, projects can be scaled and replicated by international donor organizations and national governments. Adoption of ideas and policies developed through an applied environmental diplomatic approach can lead to a more sustainable development and more peaceful relations. 

The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 left many in the region devastated and in shock.  The Track II Environmental Forum Steering Committee had a scheduled Zoom call on October 9, two days after the Hamas attack on the Gaza Envelope. 

Our Track II Israeli-Palestinian team was not sure we could meet, even virtually, and look each other in the eye. But we decided that despite the conflict, this was not the time to take a step back but a time to take a step forward. We held the virtual call, and although it was very painful, we all agreed that the relationship and trust we had built over six years was too precious to allow it to deteriorate.  Instead, we committed to each other to maintain our partnership despite the conflict, and to work together to address the crisis in the region.  

Our first mission was to help our Palestinian partners trapped in the war in Gaza to get out.  One of our Palestinian partners from Damour, a former minister in the Palestinian Authority, had gone back to visit her family in Gaza just before the war broke out. She eventually was able to leave Gaza but while she was there, organized a network of shelters for displaced persons, as many in Gaza, including herself, lost their homes to bombings. 

Soon, our colleague approached us and said that the displacement was not a short-term situation, and that people would be living in displaced persons camps or shelters for a long time before they could move back to permanent housing. She said we needed to build “Green Refugee Shelters,” meaning we needed to find a way to provide a sustainable, secure, and dignified solution for temporary housing of displaced persons for the five to 10 years it may take to rebuild the infrastructure and housing to resettle the millions of displaced Palestinians in Gaza. 

We soon launched an initiative called “Jumpstarting Hope in Gaza” to respond to the growing humanitarian and environmental crisis there. It was the first Palestinian-Israeli initiative to supply emergency aid to Gazans during the war. Now that a shaky ceasefire has been declared and a pathway to ending the conflict has been proposed, we hope to implement “Green Refugee Shelters” to provide sustainable, safe, and dignified living conditions with off-grid technologies such as atmospheric water generators, mobile wastewater treatment and reuse systems, and solar energy arrays and batteries. 

Aid distribution in Gaza, photo of Damour for Community Development (DCD) provided by David Lehrer.
Water trucks, photo provided by David Lehrer.

Throughout the painful war, the Arava Institute and Damour maintained our partnership because we believe that what unites us is much more important than what divides us. Our partners in Gaza and in Cairo, where many refugees from Gaza are now located, have already begun to think about recovery for Gaza. It is our hope that through applied environmental diplomacy, our demonstration of Palestinian-Israeli partnership inspires people in the region to base recovery on cross-border environmental cooperation and peacebuilding.

Photo provided by David Lehrer.

Keywords: Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, October 7, environmental diplomacy, environmental, conflict, conflict resolution, peace, diplomacy, humanitarian, green

This Week in Peace #103: October 24

By
Tara Abhasakun
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0
Kyiv, Ukraine, photo via Wikipedia.

This week, Trump holds off on meeting with Putin after Russia rejects frontline freeze. DRC and Rwanda meet in Washington to revive peace efforts. Trump envoy discusses peace prospects in Libya and Sudan.

Trump Holds Off on Meeting With Putin After Russia Rejects Frontline Freeze

US President Donald Trump is holding off on meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia rejected Trump’s call on October 21 to freeze the current frontline in the Russia-Ukraine war. Eleven European leaders signed a joint statement saying they “strongly support” US President Donald Trump’s position that “the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov communicated that Russia opposed an immediate ceasefire. 

Trump said that he would hold off on a meeting with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” The Associated Press reports that Trump’s hesitancy to meet with Putin came as a relief to the European leaders who signed the statement. The leaders have accused Putin of stalling for time while he works to gain more ground in Ukraine. 

The leaders, including the British prime minister, French president, and German chancellor, oppose any pressure on Ukraine to give up land that Russia has captured in return for peace, as Trump has recently suggested.

DRC and Rwanda Meet in Washington to Revive Peace Efforts

Representatives from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda met in Washington on October 21 and 22 for the third session of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism (JCSM), established as part of the peace agreement signed on June 27. The meeting aimed to evaluate how to further advance the agreement’s implementation. The two countries were joined by the United States, Qatar, and the African Union Commission.

Previous meetings had concluded with both sides agreeing to a ‘Concept of Operations’ (CONOPS), which outlines steps toward military and security cooperation. Building on the CONOPS, the parties laid out a framework for neutralizing the Rwandan Hutu rebel group the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

JCSM members made plans to monitor progress and deal with challenges, and confirmed the fourth JSCM would be held on November 19-20.

This news comes after, on October 14, the DRC and M23 armed group agreed to establish an international group to oversee the ceasefire they agreed to in July. 

Trump Envoy Discusses Peace in Libya and Sudan

US President Donald Trump’s senior envoy Massad Boulos discussed peace prospects in Libya and Sudan, Business Insider reported on October 21. 

When discussing the need to stabalize Libya, which has been unstable since the assassination of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Boulos said “We think it’s achievable.” Although he acknowledged that peace processes cannot be “implemented overnight,” he also said, “I hope that this process moves fast.”

While discussing the humanitarian crisis in El Fasher, Sudan, which has been under siege since April 2023, Boulos said that lifting the seige and negotiating a ceasefire was a “top priority.” 

Keywords: peace, Russia, Ukraine, DRC, Congo, Libya, Sudan, peace talks, conflict, conflict resolution, Putin, Trump

Local Voices Take Center Stage at Peacebuilding Gathering in Kenya 

By
Babak Bahador
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In a world where peace conferences are often dominated by policymakers and government officials from the Global North, a new kind of gathering took place last week from October 13 to 17 in Nairobi, Kenya, which aimed to put local peacebuilders at the heart of the conversation. Titled Peace Connect and organized by Peace Direct, a leading international peacebuilding NGO, the gathering (“not conference,” as the organizers emphasized) drew over 550 participants from 85 countries, with the majority of attendees from the African content.  

Dylan Mathews, Peace Direct’s CEO, explained the motivation behind the gathering. “Most peace conferences are held in places like London, Washington, or Geneva, and the people who attend are rarely those directly affected by conflict,” he said. “We wanted to do things differently—decenter Global North expertise and put the spotlight on local peacebuilders who are living through these conflicts and finding solutions.” 

Unlike traditional conferences, the event intentionally limited the number of Global North participants, and avoided the usual plenary sessions featuring high-profile policymakers. Instead, the focus was on creating an environment where local peacebuilders could share experiences, build solidarity, and learn from one another. The event centered on grassroots peacebuilding and its organization, and mainly involved small scale discussions. In some ways, the gathering itself was a prototype for reshaping global conflict resolution – local, bottom up, collaborative and inclusive of marginalized voices.

Building a Global Peacebuilder’s Ecosystem 

One of the gathering’s primary objectives was to foster solidarity—not just across borders, but within countries where civil society is often fragmented. “It’s important for activists from the same country to connect and realize they’re part of something bigger,” Mathews noted. “We want people to leave here knowing they have a global network of support.” 

Through solidarity spaces, participants shared personal stories and strategies, highlighting both the challenges and the agency of local communities. “It’s not just about doom and gloom,” Mathews emphasized. “It’s about what people are doing to make a difference.” The event also aimed to raise the profile of conflicts that rarely make international headlines—a goal shared by Peace News Network (PNN).

While the gathering covered a range of topics, three themes that were especially prominent focused on decolonizing peacebuilding, indigenous peacebuilding, and entrepreneurial peacebuilding. The three themes tie closely together and form an overall philosophy about current peacebuilding practice and how it could be transformed to be more effective and sustainable, especially in a world of shrinking aid funding for peacebuilding from the Global North.

Central Themes

While the decolonization of peacebuilding may sound like a far-left notion at first, it speaks to the failures of the current global peacebuilding system, which is based on asymmetric concentrations of knowledge and power in the Global North, and their unidirectional flow to the Global South. These relations are often historic and remnants of colonialism from past decades and centuries, which are still sustained even with the end of official colonies. 

For peacebuilding, these relations are rooted in assumptions that the West is the source of expertise for solving conflicts globally, and that the Global South lacks the capacity to solve its own conflicts. This also manifests in the flow of funding for peacebuilding, which usually involves Westerners who parachute in to implement their latest programs, with locals playing the role of passive recipients.  

The decolonization of peacebuilding aims to turn current practice and its assumptions on their heads, and allow local knowledge and practices to dominate and drive the process. 

At Peace Connect, the organizations and individuals participating, and most of the discussions organized, explored how to break this colonial legacy and implement solutions based on a post-colonial future. Many of the participants, in fact, were those pioneering such practice, including many involved in the use of indigenous peacebuilding. 

Indigenous peacebuilding involves the use of traditional pre-colonial methods to resolve conflicts. Indeed, much evidence shows that the people native to various countries already had a rich history of solving disputes before colonial powers arrived, and that these approaches, which were often discarded as outdated and unscientific by colonial powers, have a track record of working effectively in their local contexts. 

Another key theme of the gathering revolved around shrinking funding sources for peacebuilding, highlighted by the closure of USAID and reallocation of aid funding to defense funding in many Western capitals. While this raised much concern and fears amongst participants about their ability to sustain their work—with many organizations and projects already shut down or shrunk significantly—it also forced discussions about new opportunities to find alternative funding sources, which could ideally be local and sustainable, thus allowing for a financial decolonization. 

Many were inspired by examples of organizations who had engaged in peacebuilding entrepreneurship, and found new revenue sources based on meeting local needs. Could such success stories inspire others in different settings? A key goal of this gathering was to learn from each other and not only build networks of support, but also learn lessons about best practices.

A Message of Hope Amidst Uncertainty 

As the gathering drew to a close, many participants left with a renewed spirit of purpose and a sense of greater hope for the future. According to Mathews, “amidst all the despair and gloom, we must hold on to hope. The 550 people here show what’s possible…Their work can be scaled and replicated, proving that a more peaceful world is within reach.”  

Keywords: peacebuilding, gathering, local, peacebuilders, conference, peace, conflict, conflict resolution, Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, African, decolonize, decolonization, aid, USAID

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