Kenya President William Ruto, On Wednesday, called for an overhaul of the African Union (AU) to better handle disputes on the continent. He also encouraged Sudan’s warring generals to “stop the madness.”
Since fighting broke out in April between army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads a paramilitary force, around 1,000 people have died and almost a million have been displaced in Sudan.
We need to tell those generals to stop the nonsense,” Ruto told a gathering of African lawmakers in South Africa.
According to the UN, more than $3 billion will be required to deliver emergency help in the country that has been devastated by conflict, where one in three citizens already depended on humanitarian aid prior to the war.
After numerous truces were broken over the past few weeks, prospects for a ceasefire are still poor.
Speaking at the Pan-African Parliamentarian Summit, an assembly of AU lawmakers held close to Johannesburg, Ruto said the predicament exposed the bloc’s weaknesses.
“As it is, we have no capacity to stop this nonsense in our own continent,” Ruto said, adding that the AU’s peace and security efforts relied on external funding.
“We need to rethink the Peace and Security Committee,” he said, referring to the AU’s conflict resolution body.
According to the AU’s 2021 report, just 37% of the budget is provided by member states.
The European Union and other nations provide the remaining funds, together with other international partners.