SUDAN CONFLICT: IGAD Leaders to Meet in Djibouti Amid Escalating Crisis

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of East African nations, has resolved to hold its 14th ordinary summit in Djibouti next week, to discuss matters of mutual concern in the region.
Top on the agenda of this meeting scheduled for 12 June 2023 will be the escalating crisis in Sudan, triggering a serious humanitarian crisis.
The regional bloc had earlier delegated three Presidents, William Ruto of Kenya, Salva Kiir of South Sudan, and Ismail Guelleh of Djibouti to mediate the crisis between the two warring generals, and will seek to analyze the progress of this high-level mission.
The three regional heads have not traveled to Khartoum yet but special envoys from the two warring sides have been crisscrossing in their capitals explaining the situation from their own perspective.
The conflict is now in its eighth week and the United Nations has warned that civilians are facing a serious humanitarian crisis.
This crisis triggered by a power struggle between the rival army generals, has killed at least 865 Sudanese- most of whom are civilians, according to the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate.
The death toll, however, is estimated to be significantly higher.
Thousands of people have fled the country into the neighboring countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Chad among others, amid international calls to end the conflict.
STOP THE NONSENSE
Kenyan President William Ruto has previously called out the two warring generals, military chief Abdel Fattah Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo for the continued fighting that is destabilizing the country.
A tough-talking President Ruto told the generals in May to “stop the nonsense”.
“These generals are bombing everything, roads, hospitals, bridges, and destroying the airport using military hardware bought with African money. We need to tell those generals to stop the nonsense,” said Ruto in May.
The Kenyan leader said that military capacity is for fighting criminals and terrorists not for fighting women and children and destroying our own infrastructure.
The Kenyan leader, who has been tasked by a regional bloc, IGAD together with other Heads, to help in reconciling the conflicting groups poked holes in African solutions for African problems, labeling it a fallacy.
“African solutions must look like solutions. How do we say African solutions yet it is funded by our development partners,” asked Ruto
Ruto complained about the African Union Peace Fund being funded by partners more than African countries.
He appealed to the Pan-African parliament to hold the leadership of the African Union accountable.