Kenyan President William Ruto on Wednesday urged the two warring Sudanese military generals to stop the fighting that has entered its second month, reported The BBC.
Over 1,000 people have lost their lives and more than a million have been displaced in Sudan since the fighting between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads a paramilitary force, erupted in April.
The unrest has forced about 200,000 people to flee into nearby countries and those still in Khartoum are struggling to survive.
“These generals are bombing everything, roads, hospitals, bridges, and destroying the airport using military hardware bought with African money,” President Ruto said on Wednesday during the Pan-African Parliament Summit in South Africa.
“We need to tell those generals to stop the nonsense,” he added.
The Kenyan leader, who has been tasked by IGAD along with other heads, to help in reconciling the rival factions in Sudan, said the military’s work is to battle criminals and terrorists and not take the lives of children and women.
Mr. Ruto said the situation highlighted the African Union’s (AU) shortcomings in controlling the Sudanese fighting.
“As it is, we have no capacity to stop this nonsense in our own continent,” he said adding that the AU’s peace and security efforts relied on external funding.
The Kenyan president called for the AU’s conflict resolution body to be reorganized. Notably, AU member countries contribute only 37 percent of the organization’s budget, according to the bloc’s 2021 report.
On Tuesday, the United Nations appealed to raise more than $3 billion to provide urgent aid in the conflict-ravaged nation, where one person in three already relied on humanitarian assistance before the war.
The Sudanese warring sides began peace talks in Jeddah led by Saudi Arabia and the United States more than a week ago. The talks have led to the signing of a statement of principles for aid supplies and protecting civilians.
