Nelleke van de Walle

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes

Crisis Group Role

Nelleke van de Walle is the project director for the Great Lakes region, covering Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. She joined Crisis Group in April 2019 and is based in Nairobi. 

Professional Background

Prior to joining Crisis Group, Nelleke was a Dutch diplomat in The Hague and Kinshasa and worked for the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO in the DRC. She was a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and worked for a major consultancy firm in Kenya.

She holds master’s degrees in both History and International Relations from the University of Groningen and received a scholarship for a postgraduate course at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations.

Languages

  • Dutch
  • English
  • French
  • Swahili (basic)

In The News

20 Jun 2022
The tensions between these two countries [DRC and Rwanda] could destabilise a region that’s already facing political instability. The Guardian

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes
1 Jun 2022
What could be challenging is if Rwanda becomes involved on the military front [in Congo’s east]. Washington Post

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes
16 Jul 2020
Tshisekedi has been forced to cooperate with Kabila's Common Front for Congo (FCC) coalition and they have been in a standoff ever since. Al Jazeera

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes
30 Jan 2020
[The Allied Democratic Forces in DR Congo] have a very brutal way of killing the civilians and they don’t differentiate. They kill women, children, men. The Irish Times

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes
20 Aug 2019
[In Burundi] the government is pushing back on international pressure, trying to convince international actors that everything is alright. Meanwhile, its population is su... The New Humanitarian

Nelleke van de Walle

Project Director, Great Lakes

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