Milena Berks

Milena Berks is a senior advisor and researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (bicc). There, she is part of a joint project with the African Union and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations on regional approaches to dealing with armed groups in the Sahel, where she is researching the Lake Chad Basin and Chad in particular. Currently and in the past, Milena focuses on disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of former combatants (DDR), as well as small arms control.

She has held various positions in research and practice, such as in the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in New York, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), but also development cooperation in Niger. Milena Berks holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Louvain (UCL), where she is also writing her doctoral thesis on the reintegration of former combatants in Niger.