Kenyan President, William Ruto
Kampala, Uganda I HABARI DAILY I The war that is raging in Sudan has become an eyesore on the African continent. It is sending many a Sudanese common man to an early grave.
Fighting has controversially raged in the northeast African country since mid-April, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, turned on each other.
This is an issue of brother against brother. But would any one of these marcho men benefit after all the dust has settled? I do not think so. Guilt will follow them to their grave and the Sudanese, as well as pan Africanist all across the continent will never forgive them. They will go down in history as tormentors of humanity, haters of peace and ego centric beings.
That is why I strongly believe that since this is a fight between one brother and another from the same krall and household, a local solution to the hulabalo has to be sought.
AFRICAN SOLUTION
We basically need an African solution to an African problem. That’s why I was emotionally overwhelmed when I heard in the press that Kenyan president William Ruto was ready to mediate between the two protagonists.
President Ruto needs to urgently organize a “face to face” meeting between Sudan’s warring generals to end the crisis roiling the country after multiple ceasefires have failed to hold, and previous peace gestures have been ignored.
Multiple truces have been agreed and broken, with US and Saudi mediators failing to make headway in their previous efforts.
The African Union, the continent’s big brother, has also registered minimal success. It earlier suspended Sudan following a 2021 coup led by Burhan and Daglo. But that was all. It went into a deep slumber shortly after. Then entered the East African regional bloc IGAD, which has pushed for discussions mediated by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, all to no avail.
But all these gestures are most welcome, since they are initiated by fellow Africans. We need an African solution to this soaring African problem. Lest we all slip into an eternal slumber.
At a summit held in Djibouti on Monday, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development announced that it would expand the number of countries tasked with resolving the crisis, with Kenya chairing a quartet including Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
