Although official warfare in theRepublic of Congo stopped more than eight years ago, thepool region has continued to feel the collateral effects ofwar until now at a scale largely ignored by the generalpublic. The pool region is where the Ninjas, a group oflocal militias, originated during the civil strife andretreated to afterwards. Peace and recovery did not gaintraction in the area until 2010/11. Key findings of thisanalysis of the disarmament, demobilization andreintegration (DDR) process include: The lack of a publicsecurity presence: the pool region has largely been deprivedof public security forces over the past thirteen years(1998-2010), which led to power abuse. Until recently,several Ninja bases remained throughout the pool region, ledby free-riding commanders operating independently of anyofficial Ninja structure. The recognition of intra-regionaldisparity: warfare affected localities very differently.While the southern districts have been calm for the pasteight years, abuse was regularly reported along the railroadprior to 2011. The economic situation of ex-combatants:There have been many self-demobilizations in the pastdecade, and many ex-combatants have already learned to cope.The heterogeneity of ex-combatants: ex-combatants do notconstitute a homogeneous group. Therefore, theirreintegration needs differ. The consulting team developed atypology to help understand the profiles of allex-combatants. Non-targeted assistance: the consulting teamrecommends pairing recent governmental disarmamentoperations with community driven reconstruction programmingto provide closure to the population affected by the war.The main focus of programming should be to reenergize localeconomies destroyed by the war, especially medium-scaleagriculture and animal husbandry, and to open up the regionto development. The objective of this study was to analyzethe extent of reintegration of ex-combatants in the poolregion and to formulate recommendations for potential future action.
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