AU officials call for stronger solidarity as Africa confronts rising security, political challenges

"Addressing the opening session, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) Mohammed Ali Youssouf said the upcoming 39th Ordinary Summit of the African Union is scheduled to take place from February 14 to 16, 2025. 

He noted that the summit will focus heavily on peace and security challenges, particularly the situations in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Libya.

“The Commission will endeavor to use all available means to find solutions,” Youssouf said. He added, “The Peace and Security Council will act promptly and dynamically to address the various crises facing our nations.”' Story:

From Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)
Addis Ababa, Monday 12 January 2026 - full copy:

AU Officials Call for Stronger Solidarity as Africa Confronts Rising Security, Political Challenges

Addis Ababa, January 12, 2026 (ENA)—African Union (AU) officials have underlined that unity and close collaboration among Member States are indispensable to confronting the continent’s mounting security, political and economic challenges.

The 51st Ordinary Session of the AU Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) opened today at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Held under the theme “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation,” the session brings together ambassadors accredited to the African Union, senior officials of the African Union Commission and representatives of various AU organs to review pressing continental issues ahead of the next AU Summit.

Addressing the opening session, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) Mohammed Ali Youssouf said the upcoming 39th Ordinary Summit of the African Union is scheduled to take place from February 14 to 16, 2025. 

He noted that the summit will focus heavily on peace and security challenges, particularly the situations in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Libya.

“The Commission will endeavor to use all available means to find solutions,” Youssouf said. He added, “The Peace and Security Council will act promptly and dynamically to address the various crises facing our nations.”

The Chairperson further stressed that the current international environment has become increasingly complex, making solidarity among African countries more critical than ever. 

He urged Member States to adjust to present realities and strengthen reliance on domestic resources while safeguarding collective interests.

Chairperson of the PRC to the African Union, Ambassador Professor Miguel Cesar Domingos Bembe, echoed these concerns, pointing to persistent and unresolved conflicts across the continent.

 “Unresolved conflicts continue to plague regions such as eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Libya and the Sahel,” Bembe said. 

He also noted that Madagascar has recently experienced an unconstitutional change in government, while Benin narrowly avoided a similar crisis.

Bembe emphasized the Commission’s determination to address peace and security challenges using all available mechanisms, including the work of Commissioners, Special Envoys and the Panel of the Wise. 

“The Peace and Security Council is acting with necessary speed and dynamism to respond promptly to various crises,” he stated.

He further highlighted ongoing institutional reforms, particularly within the peace and security architecture, aimed at strengthening stability and resilience across the continent.

Referring to the broader global context, Bembe said declining financial resources, rising tariff barriers and restrictive visa regimes are increasingly affecting African countries and limiting the free movement of people. 

He called on Member States to remain adaptable, promote self-reliance and sustain strategic partnerships, even as global trends shift toward protectionism and unilateralism.

Delegates are expected to review the agenda over the next fifteen days, with the African Union Commission providing technical and administrative support throughout the process.

View original: https://www.ena.et/web/eng/w/eng_8099793

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SAF chief says "We will fight until the enemy is gone"

In a speech delivered to forces in Jebit in eastern Sudan, Burhan stressed that there is no room for reconciliation or agreement with the RSF, indicating that the army is continuing its battle to recover all of Sudan. "We have no reconciliation with them. We have no agreement with them," he said. "Our battle continues until every site in Sudan is restored." Read more.

From Asharq Al-Awsat English
The English edition of Asharq Al-Awsat, the leading Arab international newspaper @aawsat_news
Dated Saturday, 06 January 2024; 1445 AH - here is a copy in full:

Sudan's Army Chief: We Will Fight Until the Militia is Gone

Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (Sudanese Sovereignty Council)

(PORT SUDAN) - Sudanese army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan unequivocally dismissed an agreement signed between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and associated political groups, vowing to continue the war that has been going on for nine months.

In a speech delivered to forces in Jebit in eastern Sudan, Burhan stressed that there is no room for reconciliation or agreement with the RSF, indicating that the army is continuing its battle to recover all of Sudan.

"We have no reconciliation with them. We have no agreement with them," he said. "Our battle continues until every site in Sudan is restored."

Burhan stated that the RSF committed "war crimes," vowing that the army would deal with them "in the field."

"We will fight until the enemy is gone."

The army chief called for arming citizens to defend themselves, advocating for them to acquire weapons or enlist in the armed forces.

He regretted that some politicians are praising RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti," despite all the murders he has committed, criticizing neighboring countries that welcomed him.

Dagalo is on a tour across Africa with stops in South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned its ambassadors in Kampala and Nairobi to protest the formal receptions offered to the RSF commander.

According to a statement by the Foreign Minister-designate, Ali al-Sadiq, the Ministry summoned its ambassadors for "consultations" in response to the official welcome extended to the "militia" leader.

Hemedti's tour will extend to other African and Arab countries, and some unconfirmed reports suggest he will visit Egypt, among other Arab and regional states.

View original: 

https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4772191-sudans-army-chief-we-will-fight-until-militia-gone

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Sudan's genocidaire bids for legitimacy in Africa tour

NOTE, this article doesn't mention or explain what Sudanese people want.

From AFP (Agence France-Presse)

By Bahira Amin

Dated Saturday, 6 January 2024; 10:54 am GMT - here is a copy in full:

Sudan paramilitary chief bids for legitimacy in Africa tour: analysts

Sudan's paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (L), with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (R) in Pretoria, has been greeted as if he were a head of state, analysts say (-)

Sudan's paramilitary chief spent the first months of the country's war in the shadows. Now he has emerged to embrace civilian politicians and tour African capitals in a bid for international legitimacy, analysts say.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- commonly known as Hemeti -- commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which the United States accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region during its war with the army.

The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April last year in the northeast African country where the US has also accused the army of war crimes.

Daglo had remained largely out of sight while Burhan emerged from a siege of military headquarters to make overseas trips and address the UN General Assembly as Sudan's de facto leader.

But since late December Daglo has been on his first wartime trip abroad, meeting government leaders in Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda.

It is part of a strategy analysts see as likely linked to the United Arab Emirates.

Daglo is "in the ascendancy," said veteran Sudan expert Alex de Waal.

So is the war's death toll, estimated conservatively at more than 12,190.

Clement Deshayes, a Sudan specialist at Sorbonne University in Paris, said Daglo had been "welcomed with the attributes of a head of state" on his visits.

The most important, said Deshayes, came in Addis Ababa where Daglo met with and embraced Sudan's former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was placed under house arrest after an October 2021 coup orchestrated by Burhan and Daglo, then allies.

Their putsch derailed Sudan's fragile transition to democracy.

After a brief reinstatement, Hamdok resigned in January 2022 and fled for Abu Dhabi. He remains Sudan's foremost civilian politician and has reemerged as part of a new coalition known as Taqadum.

- 'Kiss the ring' -

In embracing Taqadum, Daglo was making "the single most important move that he could to gain legitimacy," said Andreas Krieg, a security studies expert at King's College London.

Although Burhan's administration continues to put out statements as the Sudanese government, the RSF controls the streets of the capital Khartoum, nearly all of the western Darfur region, and in December pressed deeper into Al-Jazira state, shattering one of the country's few remaining sanctuaries.

The United Nations says the violence is "imperiling regional stability", having unleashed the world's largest displacement crisis that has uprooted more than seven million people, including around 1.4 million who have crossed into neighbouring countries.

Daglo, a former camel and sheep trader, rose to prominence under Sudan's former strongman Omar al-Bashir who unleashed Janjaweed militias after an ethnic minority rebellion began in Darfur in 2003. The militia campaign led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others.

When security personnel attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum in June 2019 after Bashir's overthrow, it was the RSF, descendants of the Janjaweed, that witnesses said were at the forefront of the bloodshed, killing at least 128 people.

However, Daglo's embrace of a civilian partner offers the chance to gain international legitimacy, particular from the West, analysts told AFP.

That, said Deshayes, was "despite the ethnic cleansing in Darfur (and) the systematic rape and looting in central Sudan and Darfur".

Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst, said rumours of a linkup between Hamdok and Daglo had been "rife even before the war" and were "kicked into overdrive" by the Addis meeting.

In videos of the Addis event, Hamdok and his fellow politicians line up to shake hands with Daglo, who wears a sharp suit instead of military fatigues.

"The optics of the meeting were that Hemeti is in charge," Khair told AFP, with Hemeti "holding court and them coming to him, taking turns to say hello and kiss the ring."

On social media, pro-democracy activists accused Hamdok of betraying civilians for political gain.

- The army isolated -

Hamdok has said he hopes for "an urgent meeting" with Burhan.

However, Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the general was now "highly unlikely" to agree.

Burhan reacted with fury to Daglo's tour, accusing the host nations of "partnering in the murder of the Sudanese people".

That "is precisely the intent," Hudson told AFP.

"It will make the army look opposed to peace and paint Hemeti as the more reasonable and responsible party," he said.

Multiple analysts, including Krieg and Hudson, told AFP the strategy was probably not Daglo's alone and likely originated with the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE, analysts say, already supplies the RSF with munitions via neighbouring African countries -- a charge the UAE has denied.

Krieg said the UAE was "engineering a narrative whereby Hemeti comes out as a potential political leader", with "Taqadum as a legitimate civilian umbrella for the RSF as the security sector".

The army has grown "more and more isolated," said Deshayes, with its military defeats pushing even close ally Egypt away and Daglo now able to "start (peace) negotiations from a place of strength".

But at the same time, Burhan's alienation "will only confuse and complicate the situation and create more time and space for fighting to continue," said Hudson.

bur/bha/dcp/it

View original: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sudan-paramilitary-chief-bids-legitimacy-105449551.html

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IGAD seeks summit to deploy EASF troops in Sudan

IGAD said in a statement today it had agreed to request a summit of another regional body, the 10-member Eastern Africa Standby Force, "to consider the possible deployment of the EASF for the protection of civilians and guarantee humanitarian access". Sudan is a member of both bodies, as are Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. 

Unlike the talks in Jeddah, the IGAD meeting in Addis Ababa today was attended by members of a civilian coalition that shared power with the military in Sudan before a coup in 2021. IGAD said that along with the African Union, it would immediately start a "civilian engagement process" aimed at delivering peace. Read more.

Report by Reuters reprinted at yahoo.com

Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Hereward Holland

Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Peter Graff

Published Monday 10 July 2023, 4:18 PM GMT+1 - here is a full copy:

Eastern African bloc seeks summit to deploy regional force in Sudan

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An eastern African bloc called on Monday for a regional summit to consider deploying troops into Sudan to protect civilians, after nearly three months of violence between the army and a paramilitary faction.

Fighting that erupted on April 15 in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, has spread to other parts of the country and driven more than 2.9 million people from their homes.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), made up of eight states in and around the Horn of Africa, met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to kick-start a peace process for the conflict in Sudan.

But the initiative faced a setback as a delegation from Sudan's army failed to attend the first day of meetings, having rejected Kenya's president as head of the committee facilitating the talks.

IGAD said in a statement it had agreed to request a summit of another regional body, the 10-member Eastern Africa Standby Force, "to consider the possible deployment of the EASF for the protection of civilians and guarantee humanitarian access".

Sudan is a member of both bodies, as are Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.

Diplomatic efforts to halt fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have so far proved ineffective, with competing initiatives creating confusion over how the warring parties might be brought to negotiate.

IGAD said it regretted the absence of a delegation from the Sudan army, which it said had earlier confirmed attendance.

Sudan's foreign affairs ministry, which is controlled by the army, said the delegation did not turn up because IGAD had ignored its request to replace Kenya's President William Ruto as head of the committee spearheading the talks.

Ruto "lacks impartiality in the ongoing crisis," the ministry said through the state news agency. Last month it accused Kenya of harbouring the RSF.

Neither Ruto's office nor the Kenyan ministry of foreign affairs responded immediately when Reuters sought comment. The Kenyan government said last month the president was a neutral arbiter who was duly appointed by the IGAD summit.

Following the meeting, Ruto called for an unconditional ceasefire and the establishment of a humanitarian zone — spanning a radius of 30 kilometres in Khartoum — to aid the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Talks hosted in Jeddah and sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia were suspended last month. Egypt has said it would host a separate summit of Sudan's neighbours on July 13 to discuss ways to end the conflict.

Unlike the talks in Jeddah, the meeting in Addis Ababa was attended by members of a civilian coalition that shared power with the military in Sudan before a coup in 2021.

IGAD said that along with the African Union, it would immediately start a "civilian engagement process" aimed at delivering peace.

FILE PHOTO: Man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment in Khartoum North

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Hereward Holland; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Peter Graff)

View original: https://news.yahoo.com/eastern-african-bloc-seeks-summit-151822183.html 

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Related reports

Sudan Watch - 27 May 2023

Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) starts 2-week training rapid reaction forces at UN centre in Uganda

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/05/eastern-africa-standby-force-easf.html

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