Michael Jones

The United Kingdom’s controversial merger of its aid and foreign affairs departments has delivered “benefits” for development work in key countries in East Africa, a study based on almost 200 interviews argues. The 2020 creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — widely criticized as chaotic for aid delivery — “shows early promise” toward its aim of integrating policy objectives, the Royal United Service Institute think tank found. ... “We found benefits, through our research, for the delivery of aid and development, although this was not across the board,” one of the study’s authors, Michael Jones, told Devex. “There were tangible examples where aid, development and diplomatic engagement had married up in an interesting way, for example, in Ethiopia, over conflict de-escalation and respect for humanitarian law.”

Michael Jones, research fellow in terrorism and conflict at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, RUSI, told VOA that while the 24-hour truce is welcoming, sustainability of the agreement remains to be determined. "It's obviously good news and hopefully, it alleviates some of the civilian suffering and displacement that's been ongoing across the country, not least in Khartoum, but elsewhere as well," he said. But Jones questioned the wider approach to resolve the simmering tensions for the Sudanese people in the longer term, including what he described as the "wider systemic and structural issues" that led to the outbreak of breakdown of law and order these past few days....

Many terrorist groups have released statements advocating weaponizing COVID-19. Those entities exercising some form of territorial control, such as the Taliban and al-Shabaab, also face wider questions over the capacity and inclination of their administrative systems to effectively respond to the crisis.