LAND DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN POST-CIVIL WAR COUNTRIES:WAYS OF HARNESSING SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN BURUNDI AND RWANDA
Keywords:
Civil war, Land dispute, Sustainable peace, Burundi, RwandaAbstract
In most African countries, civil wars have been accompanied by land disputes that, if not resolved, have revived the conflict. Moreover, among treaties and accords signed between the two parties in conflicts, land dispute resolution has not been included. The failure to recognise land disputes has endangered the sustainable peace in the country. Therefore, this paper documents the typology of land disputes and mechanisms applied to resolve them for sustainable peace in post-civil war contexts, despite the differences among ethnic groups in Burundi and Rwanda. The paper used a qualitative research approach to collect data from different sources. The data were analysed by using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA). The findings show that both Burundi and Rwanda have the same category of land disputes, subdivided into different land dispute types. Also, both countries applied informal and formal land dispute resolution mechanisms crafted and hosted in different institutions. Both countries have established institutions at the grassroots and local level for land dispute resolution, which helped to harness sustainable peace. Furthermore, a five-step process was effective in Rwanda to resolve land disputes, whereas in Burundi, a two-way approach was effective in addressing them. From the locally created committees, residents were unified, and social cohesion was enhanced, and then, sustainable peace was achieved.
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