The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges around the world, triggering a global economic downturn, causing large-scale border closures, and placing enormous strains on the systems servicing populations everywhere. In many conflict settings, the COVID-19 has created new opportunities for armed groups to expand their influence, undermine state authority, and increase recruitment. Boko Haram has spread misinformation and targeted health workers in the hopes of gaining leverage in northern Nigeria. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has rolled out a large-scale propaganda campaign and has imposed its own quarantine processes, demonstrating its influence and control over large parts of the country. And in Somalia, Al Shabaab has set up COVID-19 treatment cells, criticizing the Somali government for its failures to respond.

This event is a collaboration amongst UN University Centre for Policy Research, the Brookings Institution, and the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the Overseas Development Institute. The panelists will explore the various ways in which armed groups are instrumentalizing the pandemic, how governments have responded, and what specific steps can be taken over the coming period.

Speakers:

Adam Day (Moderator) - Director of Programmes, UN University Centre for Policy Research

Vanda Felbab-Brown - Director, Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, The Brookings Institution

Nadwa al-Dawsari - Non-Resident Fellow, Middle East Institute, former Yemen Country Director for Center for Civilians in Conflict

Ashley Jackson - Co-Director, Centre for the Study of Armed Groups, Overseas Development Institute

Siobhan O’Neil, Project Director, Managing Exits from Armed Conflict project at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research