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

Ends

Sudan's military govt returns to Khartoum, aims to improve services for the city's beleaguered residents

"Sudan's military-led government has returned to the country's capital after nearly three years of operating from its wartime base in the eastern city of Port Sudan.

Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris told reporters on Sunday that the "government of hope" was officially back in Khartoum and would begin efforts to improve services for the city's beleaguered residents." Read more.

From BBC News
By Wedaeli Chibelushi
Published Sunday 11 January 2026 - full copy:

Sudan's government returns to capital after nearly 3 years of war

IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS. Image caption, The military's leader, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, visited Khartoum's presidential palace hours after it was recaptured last year

Sudan's military-led government has returned to the country's capital after nearly three years of operating from its wartime base in the eastern city of Port Sudan.

Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris told reporters on Sunday that the "government of hope" was officially back in Khartoum and would begin efforts to improve services for the city's beleaguered residents.

The military was forced out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) when civil war erupted between the two sides in 2023. The army recaptured it in a significant breakthrough last March.

Khartoum has been recovering from years of fighting. Roughly five million fled the city at the height of the conflict, according to the UN.

Those unwilling or unable to leave described a brutal RSF occupation, which included mass looting and fighters taking over civilian homes.

Huge swathes of the city lie in ruins. In October, UN official Ugochi Daniels reported that basic services were "barely functioning".

On Sunday, Idris said the government would work on improving electricity, water, healthcare and education in Khartoum.

He also declared that 2026 would be a "year of peace" for Sudan, where at least 150,000 people have died since the war erupt.

The UN has described the situation as the world's worst humanitarian crisis and around 12 million people have been forced from their homes.

The war began after the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah-al Burhan fell out with his deputy and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leading to a vicious struggle for power.

Both the RSF and the Sudanese military have been accused of committing atrocities throughout the conflict.

International efforts to broker peace have failed and both sides are backed by foreign powers who have poured weapons into the country.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has come under particular scrutiny recently over allegations of supporting the RSF, which it strongly denies.

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgn5g90lggo

Ends

The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Sudan - we must not look away (UK FM Cooper)

"Today we are announcing that the UK will jointly convene with Germany a major international conference on Sudan in Berlin in April, as we mark the third anniversary of this devastating conflict. And the UK will use its voice and Presidency of the United Nations Security Council next month, to prevent Sudan again slipping down the international agenda." - Yvette Cooper, UK Foreign Secretary. Read more.

From The Independent.co.uk

Editorial by Yvette Cooper, UK Foreign Secretary

Published Friday 09 January 2026 10:00 GMT - full copy:

The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Sudan - we must not look away

As the conflict in Sudan passes the grim milestone of 1,000 days, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper writes that the same diplomatic energy that helped end the war in Gaza is needed to end the crisis

South Sudan's worsening water crisis [VIDEO]

The world is catastrophically failing the people of Sudan. Today marks a grim milestone – 1,000 days of devastating violent conflict involving unimaginable atrocities, millions pushed into famine, and the most barbaric abuse of Sudan’s women.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis happening now is greater than any in the 21st century and the security consequences are likely to be felt far beyond Sudan for many years to come.

The world must not look away from the conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces that is terrorising Sudan. I am determined we shine a searing spotlight on the unfolding atrocities and make 2026 the year the world comes together to drive urgent new momentum towards peace.

Last month, I listened as Sudanese civilians and community workers from their Emergency Response Rooms recounted the horrific human cost of the RSF’s October capture of the town of El Fasher after a grinding 18-month siege – including ethnically motivated mass killings and use of rape and starvation as weapons of war.

These stories on the ground corroborated the satellite images from space – images of blood-soaked earth and mass graves that all too briefly jolted the world’s attention.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper (Reuters)

Aid workers in Tawila gave me a virtual tour of the makeshift camps where hundreds of distressed children arrived having made a 46-mile journey from El Fasher on foot. Traumatised women and children are scraping an existence with scant rations under thornbush shelters.

International Rescue Committee (IRC) staff recounted their struggle to support unprecedented numbers of victims of sexual violence in what they described as a war on women’s bodies. As shocking as what I saw was what I did not see – boys or men. Fathers, husbands and brothers missing, likely killed, following forced separation from their families.

Over 30 million people still need lifesaving aid. Famine is spreading. Infrastructure has collapsed. Preventable diseases are rampant. The conflict is escalating and spreading in the Kordofan region. 

The RSF have been accused of war crimes (File picture). 

Rapid Support Forces

For the leaders of Sudan’s warring parties to refuse to halt the war or to prevent massacres and atrocities on this scale is horrendous. For so many soldiers to be systematically raping Sudanese women is barbaric.

The case for action is deeply moral. But it is also about our wider security. Wars that rage unresolved radiate instability. They undermine the security of neighbouring states, they become easy targets for extremist groups to exploit. And they lead migrants to embark on dangerous international journeys.

Sudan’s war goes far beyond Sudan. It is regionalised and globalised. It poses a global test of our ability to mobilise the agile alliances, partnerships and multilateral weight to get a breakthrough.

Words of international concern or outrage are not enough. We need a concerted diplomatic drive to arrest the spiralling violence and suffering.

Sudanese residents gather to receive free meals in Al Fasher 

(AFP via Getty Images)

The US have been working to get a truce and wider plan in place – drawing together the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (the ‘Quad’). That is why last month in Washington I held talks with Secretary Rubio and the President’s senior advisor on Africa and I have repeatedly engaged Quad members on ways forward.

But we need the same international focus and energy now from right across the world that we had around securing the Gaza ceasefire.

Today we are announcing that the UK will jointly convene with Germany a major international conference on Sudan in Berlin in April, as we mark the third anniversary of this devastating conflict. And the UK will use its voice and Presidency of the United Nations Security Council next month, to prevent Sudan again slipping down the international agenda.

At the heart of international efforts must be pursuing the humanitarian truce and a push for a permanent end to hostilities. This can only come through greater pressure on the warring parties – crucially from their regional backers.

Second, we have to prevent further atrocities by either side. This means working to raise the cost of committing or backing further massacres. On 12 December, the UK sanctioned senior RSF commanders, including the so-called “Butcher of El Fasher” who has openly boasted on social media of murdering Sudanese civilians.

Sudanese who fled el-Fasher city crowd to receive food at their camp in Tawila (AP)

And we are working to combat impunity and hold perpetrators to account. In November, UK leadership at the UN Human Rights Council secured international agreement to an urgent UN inquiry into crimes in El Fasher. We are supporting vital investigations by the International Criminal Court.

Third, unimpeded aid needs to reach populations in need. The UK has provided an additional £21 million for food, shelter, health services and protection of women and children in hardest to reach areas. This brings our total support to £146 million this financial year.

But for aid to save more lives, the belligerents must lift their deliberate and systematic barriers to humanitarian access.

Ultimately, no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent. It must be the Sudanese people, not any warring group, that determine Sudan’s future.

The world must now come together around this cause – to stem the bloodshed and help set Sudan on a path to peace.

View original: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sudan-war-humanitarian-crisis-yvette-cooper-b2897125.html

Ends

Sudan Climate Change: Root causes of Darfur conflict

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Taking time out to search Sudan Watch's archives and collate various posts from the past 20 years. They are taking hours to find and prepare for a series of posts focussing on peace and the alleviation of poverty and extreme poverty in Sudan and South Sudan.

To start, here is an excerpt from a post published July 14, 2006 entitled:

'The root causes of the Darfur conflict: A struggle over controlling an environment that can no longer support all the people who must live on it'

DARFUR IN THE EYES OF A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER

Environmentalist Wangari Maathai who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize stated to The Washington Post on May 12, 2005 that:

"Darfur is an example of a situation where a dire scarcity of natural resources is manipulated by politicians for their own ambition. To outsiders, the conflict is seen as tribal warfare. At its roots, though, it is a struggle over controlling an environment that can no longer support all the people who must live on it. You must not deal only with the symptoms you have to get to the root causes by promoting environmental rehablitation and empowering people to do things for themselves. What is done for the people without involving them can not be sustained."

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2006/07/root-causes-of-darfur-conflict.html

[Ends]

Sudan and South Sudan: Peace and Climate Change

• The peace needs to be rewritten to include provisions for all tribes to address what they were fighting over to begin with. 
• Famine relief needs to be supported by all western world countries, especially those who are the largest contributors to global warming. 
• The conflict in Sudan's arid west can be traced to severe drought and population growth in the 1980s that sparked a struggle between settled farmers and pastoralists.
• In Darfur there is a massive ecological and demographic challenge exacerbated by climate change.
• There's not a chance in the world for Darfur to be peaceful unless a solution is found to water stress. 

Read more in these two posts from Sudan Watch archive 2006:

Climate Change and Darfur 

Note this gem, by an insightful blogger at dishyduds blogspot re "Climate Change and Darfur":

"I now believe that the United States has a moral obligation to alleviate the struggles in Africa. It is our responsibility because we are the largest contributors to the root of the problem. I no longer support a UN military presence. Peace cannot be forced, and military action would only act as a band-aid on a seeping infected wound. The root cause needs to be addressed and the United States needs to lead as we had a hand in creating the problem. The peace needs to be rewritten to include provisions for all tribes to address what they were fighting over to begin with. Famine relief needs to be supported by all western world countries, especially those who are the largest contributors to global warming." 

__________________________

Related report

Sudan Watch - July 17, 2006 

Darfur Peace Must Address Water Crisis: Economist - excerpt:

The conflict in Sudan's arid west is often attributed to political and ethnic grievances, Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, told a climate change conference.

But he said its origins can be traced to severe drought and population growth in the 1980s that sparked a struggle between settled farmers and pastoralists.

"(In Darfur) we need to understand that, at the core, there is a massive ecological and demographic challenge exacerbated by climate change," Sachs said.

"I would say there's not a chance in the world for Darfur to be peaceful unless a solution is found to water stress." 

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2006/07/darfur-peace-must-address-water-crisis.html

[Ends]