Enough’s 5 Recommended Reads is a biweekly series featuring important stories you may have missed. To align with the 30th African Union Summit’s (January 22-29, 2018) focus on corruption, this installation highlights products related to Enough’s work on violent kleptocracy.
- “Spoiler Alert: The African Union’s and IGAD’s Contribution to South Sudan’s War” (Brief)
In this policy brief, published on the eve of the African Union Heads of State Summit, Enough’s Brian Adeba and John Prendergast argue that the African Union’s reluctance to follow through on threats to hold spoilers accountable is contributing to fueling the war in South Sudan. - “Bankrupting Kleptocracy: Financial tools to counter atrocities in Africa’s deadliest war zones” (Report)
Enough’s October 2016 report describes how the state in several conflict-affected countries in East and Central Africa has been hijacked and transformed from an institution that is supposed to provide social services and safeguard the rule of law into a predatory criminal enterprise that does quite the opposite. - “Violent Kleptocracies: How they’re destroying parts of Africa and how they can be dismantled” (Brief)
In this October 2016 policy brief, Enough’s John Prendergast details the devastation caused by violent kleptocracies in some African states, and offers a set of innovative recommendations to dismantle those corrupt and violent systems. - “A Criminal State: Understanding and countering institutionalized corruption and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo ” (Report)
This in-depth report details how Congo is not a failed state but rather an efficient state for ruling elites and their commercial partners who seek to extract or traffic resources at the expense of Congo’s development, and it offers policy recommendations to help create consequences for those profiteers as well as improve governance. - “Sudan’s Deep State: How Insiders Violently Privatized Sudan’s Wealth, and How to Respond ” (Report) Enough’s April 2017 report details how a powerful inner circle within Khartoum has privately expropriated oil, gold, and land for massive self-enrichment and to maintain control through the use of starvation as a method of war, the indiscriminate bombardment of its own civilian populations, and an array of militias notorious for ethnic cleansing.