Thesis (M.M. (Security))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2012. / This study sets out to examine the causes for the continued conflicts in the Kivu particularly after the establishment of a transitional government in the DRC in 2004 and the elections in 2006. Three factors appear to account for the continued conflicts. First is the ethnic divide between the local population and the Kinyarwanda speakers that have settled in the region overtime. This conflict is mostly centered on the land issues which were not addressed in the final agreements for the establishment of the transitional government in Kinshasa, at Sun City in 2002. It should not be surprising that this sparked new fighting in 2006 after the elections. Second is the continued existence of a central power vacuum. This is mainly because the national army is neither strong nor disciplined enough to establish its hegemony in the area. Its task was made more difficult by the continued Rwandan interests in the area, which went beyond security concerns. Thus the Nkunda rebellion was only successful because of Rwandan support. Third is the continuation of the war economy centered on the exploitation of natural resources that are abundant in the area. This has helped to fund the war in the Kivus, and as long as there are profits to be made from natural resources exploitation, conflicts and violence in the area will continue. The conclusion from this study is that peace in the Kivus needs the establishment of a central administration with both military power to secure the area, in particular the mining areas and judicial authority to prosecute the warlords and armed groups that continue to benefit from the continuation of conflicts and violence in the area.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 2017 / The research was driven by the need to optimise the Ruashi Mining operation to prevent further high-grading without destroying the value of the mine. Ruashi Mining incurred a five-year stripping backlog caused by the drive to reduce costs. As a result of this, a decline in metal production was imminent in the subsequent years. The study was conducted mainly using SimSched Direct Block Scheduler (SimSched DBS) in comparison with schedules from Datamine Net Present Value Scheduler (NPVS) and MineSched. The scenarios investigated have shown that running a mine based on break-even cut-off grade does not optimise the net present value of an operation as shown through the results of Ruashi Mining. The research also proved that royalty affects the cut-off grade for Ruashi Mining, and cannot be ignored. The proper scheduling of wasting stripping resulting from cut-off grade optimisation has contributed to a timeous exposure of high grade to avert the decline in metal production. All the three scenarios have shown that high grade ore can be availed on time, thus producing a smooth metal output for the life of mine. Cut-off grade optimisation is very crucial for any mining organisation as it is the main driver of value. Ore reserves are important in the determination of a company’s share price. High cut-off grade results in fewer reserves, and vice versa. Since mineral reserves are the source of revenue, therefore, the higher the reserves, the higher the revenue. Low cut-off grade may result in the processing of material that does not give high profit at the beginning of the life of mine. This, therefore, lowers the mining company’s net present value. This makes it imperative to optimise the cut-off grade during the mine life in order to optimise the net present value. During mining operations, there are various stakeholders whose interests must be considered during cut-off grade optimisation because they derive many benefits from the mine. These stakeholders include shareholders, employees, government, the community and non-governmental organisations. Cut-off grade optimisation has shown that there is an opportunity to improve the net present value of Ruashi Mining. SimSched gives a higher net present value (NPV) compared to the current Ruashi life of mine schedule. This indicates that SimSched can be used to improve the NPV for Ruashi by producing an optimised schedule. It is important to note though that there is need for the software to have provisions to take into account the initial stockpile status so that there is a holistic approach to the schedule optimisation. The grade-tonnage curve is steeper closer to zero implying that a small change in cut-off grade has a huge impact on reserves. Based on the results of the study it was clear that optimisation in SimSched DBS results in a steeply declining cut-off grade policy compared to NPVS. In addition, optimisation in SimSched leads to highly accelerated mining rate and massive stockpiling. Royalty is a cost which has to be incorporated in cut-off grade optimisation. The study has shown that the cut-off grade for Ruashi is increased by 19.8%. Ignoring royalty may result in overvaluing of an operation. Environmental considerations favour the optimisation of the use of the mieral resources. Consideration of environmental costs lowered the cut-off grade for Ruashi by 16%. / MT 2017

From October-December 2013, we conducted a study of the newly discovered primate species lesula, Cercopithecus lomamiensis, in the DR Congo. We placed 41 camera traps inside a 4 km2 grid outside the proposed Lomami National Park (LNP). We compared an analysis of 140 lesula events over 1,683 camera trap days from the heavily hunted Okulu area to a pilot study (38 events over 462 camera trap days) at the Losekola study site within the LNP. Our data show an unexpected result: capture probability of lesula (0.08) is the same at both the hunted and non-hunted sites. This is in contrast to the sharp decline in capture probability of all other medium-to-large terrestrial mammals at the Okulu site. These findings suggest lesula’s cryptic behavior is an important adaptation buffering the species from the impacts of hunting. This study also expands knowledge on minimum group size, terrestriality, diet, and times of activity. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Researchers and policy makers largely focus on gender-based violence (GBV) in eastern Congo’s conflict zones, leaving the remainder of the vast country understudied. Few in-depth studies exist regarding the nature and dynamics of gender-based violence that occurs in non-conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or on a regular basis within households of eastern DRC. This study uses the 2014 DRC Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data to explore the key factors that are associated with all forms of violence against women and girls in the DRC and takes a more refined look at the association between conflict and GBV than any other empirical study to date. By using a multilevel modeling approach, the research examines key risk factors at the individual, community and province level that influence a woman’s exposure or not to physical and sexual violence in the DRC. By developing and including variables that quantify social norms and attitudes as well as spatially joining data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database, the study analyzes the role of individual and contextual factors and the relationship between gender-based violence and conflict. Findings highlight that a woman’s experience of intergenerational violence and patriarchal norms at the individual and community levels are among the strongest predictors of GBV in the DRC, and that intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most prevalent form of GBV, even in areas of conflict. Surprising results show that a woman is less likely to experience GBV in areas of higher armed conflict – even when considering non-husband violence. The results do not show higher levels of IPV in areas that experience higher instances of violent conflict, contradicting studies conducted in other contexts. One of the most striking results of this study is the significant and consistent role that community-level variables play in the models -- demonstrating the valuable contribution of multilevel analysis and use of contextual variables. This study underscores how critical the use of “neighborhood” variables is to understanding GBV risks and validates the use of the ecological theoretical framework, moving beyond only individual risk factors to explain GBV in the DRC context. / 1 / Monica Carlson

Review of forestry policy and deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a look at REDD, national parks, forest certification systems, non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and a focus on community-based conservation.

M. Tech. Marketing / Describes the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS, exposure to information, accessibility to condoms and sexual conduct of inhabitants of Kinshasa regarding HIV/AIDS issues under the scrutiny of HIV social marketing campaigns. Secondly, the study aims at investigating the relationships between level of awareness of HIV/AIDS, exposure to information, accessibility to condoms, poverty/equity and sexual conduct amongst the inhabitants of Kinshasa. Thirdly, it intends to determine the difference between groups with regard to gender, age and socio-economic status.

Informal mining requires particular attention in the fight against poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region, more than ten millions of people have depended on it for livelihoods. The aim of this study was to investigate the causes and impacts of the suspension of informal mining in the eastern DRC, between 2010 and 2011, on rural livelihoods in Twangiza. The study being a qualitative case study, both primary and secondary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a total of 21 respondents and analyzed using thematic methods. This study has found that geopolitical influences upon the DRC government‟s concerns over fraud, corruption, loss of state revenues and the perpetuation of conflicts associated with informal mining activities were the main causes of its suspension in the eastern DRC. In Twangiza however, although informal mining was still practiced until 2010 when it was suspended across the eastern DRC, it had already been illegalized since 2003, following the introduction of BANRO - a Canadian based multinational company – to mine in the area. This happened shortly after DRC‟s adoption of a predominantly neo-liberal driven Mining Code in 2001. This study has also found that the suspension of informal mining worsened the already venerable rural livelihoods in Twangiza as it resulted in increased unemployment, loss of income and food as well school dropouts by both pupils and teachers. To cope with these impacts many people decided to liquidate their assets, including livestock and land. While some of them managed to reemploy themselves by reinvesting in small businesses or migrating outside the community to search jobs, the most vulnerable had no option but to stay at home, resort to theft or prostitution. This study, therefore stresses the livelihood importance of informal mining in Twangiza, which is consistent with previous studies on informal mining and livelihoods among poor communities in developing countries, especially in Africa. It also questions the consistency of DRC‟s mining policy and provides some constructive recommendations on how mining should be used to promote sustainable development in the eastern DRC. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The cruelty and scope of the widespread criminality of humans in the world, which was a feature of the past century, was fuelled by scientific progress, egoism and humanity's power of destruction. The criminal consequences of the many imperialistic, hegemonic and barbarous wars in that century were immeasurable in terms of violations of human rights. Notwithstanding the emergence of international criminal justice through the experience of the International Criminal Military Tribunal of Nuremberg and Tokyo and later the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, globally, impunity for egregious crimes continues. The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the end of the 20th century was saluted as a major step forward in the evolution of international criminal justice. While previous tribunals were ad hoc, the ICC is permanent and has large territorial jurisdiction. This raises hope among the many Congolese victims of the first African World War, who view the ICC as a paradigm change that will put a stop to impunity for crimes against humanity and the crimes of genocide and war. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the past decades have been marked by instability and horrible armed conflicts (1996-97 and 1998-2003) which left several million people dead, and which were marked by gross war crimes. The negative consequences of those atrocities persist until today. While the ICC initiated the prosecution of some war criminals in 2004, most crimes committed before 2002 remain unpunished, because the ICC's jurisdiction is limited to after that time. It is therefore imperative to examine other mechanisms to deal with impunity for various grave crimes, including war crimes, perpetrated between 1996 and 2002. Thus the aim of this research is to contribute to the fight against impunity for crimes in the DRC by examining how other modes of jurisdiction such as the principle of universality can be applied, and to assess the need for the establishment of a specific tribunal for the DRC. Considering the inability and incapacity of the Congolese judicial apparatus, this study concludes by recommending the establishment of a Special Criminal Tribunal which can put an end to impunity for serious crimes committed in the DRC. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 437-461). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis--Université de Kinshasa, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-64).