Doing business out of war. An analysis of the UPDF's presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

This paper analyses how Ugandan army commanders have mobilised transborder economic networks to exploit economic opportunities in eastern DRC during the military intervention of the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) in Congo's wars (1996Á97; 1998Á2003). These transborder networks are the starting point of our evaluation of the informal political structures and networks linking Uganda's political centre to Congo's war complex. While it is often claimed that military entrepreneurismalism in the DRC has undermined political stability in Uganda, we argue that the activities of Ugandan military entrepreneurs and networks under their control were an integral part of Uganda's governance regime. Crucial to the development of this entrepreneurialism was the existence of pre-war transborder networks of economic exchange that were connecting Congo to eastern African markets. Military control over these highly informalised networks facilitated UPDF commanders' access to Congo's resources. Rather than operating as privatised sources of accumulation, these military shadow networks were directly linked to the inner circles of the Ugandan regime.

Prominent peripheries: the role of borderlands in Central Africa's regionalized conflict

“…From viewing the viability and workings of borderlands as dependent on the metropole -something espoused by scholars such as Igor Kopytoff (1987) -today scholars are increasingly recognizing the agency of borderlands (Husken 2009, 4). Indeed, borderlanders, especially powerful borderland actors such as smuggling rings or rebel movements, use the border and the area around it in dynamic ways that not only transform the borderland, but also can indeed influence the metropole, reshape state authority, and ultimately make these spaces ones of creativity and inventiveness of alternative political, social and economic systems (Das and Poole 2004;Vlassenroot, Perrot, and Cuvelier 2012). Taking a borderland perspective then, as this paper has done, means taking the borderland as an analytical concept, and recognizing the agency, dynamics and transformative power that it instigates.…”

Deadly secret: situating the unknowing and knowing of the source of the Ebola epidemic in Northern Uganda

“…In order to fully understand how the source of the Ebola outbreak came to be unknown and how the unknowing contributes to the formation of a disease situation, we need to turn our attention to the military intervention in the DRC. The UPDF soldiers who, according to my informants, had contracted the virus were part of the second Ugandan intervention in the DRC between 1998 and 2003 (Reno 2002; Vlassenroot, Perrot & Cuvelier 2012). This intervention might have been initially meant to protect the border region between Uganda and the DRC against anti‐Ugandan rebel forces.…”

“…The helicopter that brought the lieutenant to Lacor Hospital, the referral letter with which he came, and his bodyguards, all mentioned by Sister Cypriana, indicate that the UPDF intervention was a rather systematic undertaking, as scholarly analyses of the intervention emphasize (Reno 2002; UN 2001; Vlassenroot et al . 2012). The illegal exploitation of resources in the DRC was commanded by a small number of UPDF officials belonging to the inner circle of the political elite in Kampala, most notably Salim Saleh, the brother of President Museveni, and General James Kazini, Saleh's right hand.…”

Spatial Food and Nutrition Security Typologies for Agriculture and Food Value Chain Interventions in Eastern DRC

“…Intuitively, insecurity will in general discourage potential investors in value chain development while the mining sector may provide attractive employment alternatives to agriculture. In contrast, some studies on Eastern DRC point to increased economic exchange and market integration, not despite of, but rather due to insecurity, both indirectly, through the massive presence of humanitarian actors, or more directly, by socalled entrepreneurs of insecurity (Marivoet, 2016;Vlassenroot et al, 2012). Anyhow, any value chain analysis in Eastern DRC will need to seriously consider the dimension of insecurity as well as the opportunity cost provided by the mining sector.…”