Milena Berks

Biography

Milena joined bicc in 2021 as a researcher and project officer supporting the joint project between bicc and the UN Department of Peace Operations on the Revision and Dissemination of the United Nations Integrated Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS). She now works on a follow-up project focusing on regional approaches to dealing with armed groups in the Sahel, exploring regional conflict dynamics, including the linkage between armed groups, the exploitation of natural resources, and organised crime. Before joining bicc, Milena worked at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in New York in the conventional arms branch, where she helped to implement small arms control initiatives in Africa together with national and regional partners, such as the African Union and the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA). She started working on small arms control issues already before that within the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) control project at bicc, engaging in regional small arms control initiatives in various countries in West- Central-, and East Africa, notably Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Sudan. Milena also has practical experience as a DDR Officer for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and worked at the University Abdou Moumouni (UAM) in Niamey, Niger, in the framework of a cooperation between UAM and the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). Milena currently pursues her Ph.D. at UCLouvain on the role of social identity in the reintegration processes of former Tuareg and Tubu combatants in Niger.