Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa Nairobi Please submit all media inquiries to aboswell@crisisgroup.org or call +32 (0) 2 536 00 71 Crisis Group Role Alan is the director of the Horn of Africa Project at Crisis Group and, since 2019, hosts Crisis Group's fortnightly The Horn podcast. He joined Crisis Group in 2018 as the senior analyst for South Sudan. Professional Background Alan has worked for over a decade in East Africa. He started his career as a Nairobi-based journalist in 2009, then covered Sudan's divorce into two countries as a Juba-based journalist in 2010-2011 before returning to Nairobi as an Africa correspondent, reporting from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Central African Republic, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Alan has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Time magazine, The Atlantic, and a variety of U.S. newspapers. Following the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, Alan served as a formal adviser and researcher for a number of organisations, including the United Nations, USAID, U.S. Institute of Peace, European Institute of Peace, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Folke Bernadotte Academy, Friedrich Egbert Stiftung and World Peace Foundation. Prior to joining Crisis Group, Alan regularly published conflict research through the Small Arms Survey and was an associate of the Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics. Select Publications "Conflict and Crisis in South Sudan's Equatoria", United States Institute of Peace, April 2021 "South Sudan: The Politics of Delay", London School of Economics, Dec 2019 "Do local peace deals work? Evidence from South Sudan’s civil war", Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Dec 2019 "The Security Arena in South Sudan: A Political Marketplace Study", London School of Economics, Dec 2019 "Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor", Small Arms Survey, Oct 2019 "South Sudan: The Perils of Payroll Peace", London School of Economics, March 2019 "Contested Refuge: The political economy and conflict dynamics in Uganda's Bidi Bidi refugee Settlement", Danish Refugee Council, Oct 2018 “Spreading Fallout: The collapse of the ARCSS and new conflict along the Equatorias-DRC border", Small Arms Survey, May 2017 “Conflict in Western Equatoria”, Small Arms Survey, July 2016 In The News 3 Feb 2023 The situation is horrendous in South Sudan, and it seems to keep getting worse despite the peace deal. Washington Post Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa 9 Aug 2021 There is still no sign of a broader reset in South Sudanese politics [...] instead, the divisions just keep mounting. New York Times Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa 9 Jul 2021 [South Sudan] is just, unfortunately, in a much worse spot than it was 10 years ago. Whenever I talk with various diplomats from different countries [...] they all fear c... Al Jazeera Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa 13 Aug 2020 Disarmament in South Sudan resembles an abusive counterinsurgency operation, not an orderly collection of arms, which the local militias often resist giving up. The New York Times Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa 8 May 2020 The disagreement between Kiir and Machar has endangered the gains made toward a lasting peace. Reuters Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa 20 Feb 2020 "[South Sudan president Kiir and former rebel leader Machar] still have much to work through, but Machar was unlikely to extract more significant concessions before formi... Reuters Alan Boswell Project Director, Horn of Africa Latest Updates Podcast / Africa 02 February 2023 A Return to Civilian Rule in Sudan? Podcast / Africa 11 January 2023 Somalia's Offensive Against Al-Shabaab Podcast / Africa 07 December 2022 A Conversation with Top U.S. Diplomat to Africa Molly Phee Podcast / Africa 30 November 2022 The Boiling Regional Crisis in Eastern Congo Podcast / Africa 09 November 2022 Eritrea's Long Bitter Feud with Ethiopia's Tigray Podcast / Africa 26 October 2022 Getting Climate Security in Africa on the Agenda for COP27 Load more