‘Stop the nonsense’ – Kenyan leader tells Sudan generals

Kenyan President William Ruto has once again called out the two warring Sudanese generals, urging them to stop the fighting that has entered its second month.

Intense battles in the capital Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman have raged despite Saudi and US-brokered talks between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Jeddah, aimed at securing humanitarian access and a ceasefire.

“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,” President Ruto said on Wednesday during the Pan-African Parliament Summit in South Africa.

The Kenyan leader, who has been tasked by a regional bloc, Igad, together with other heads, to help in reconciling Sudan’s rival sides, said military capacity was for battling criminals and terrorists and not for fighting children and women.

Mr Ruto, however, blamed African states for lacking the capacity to stop the war in Sudan “because our own peace and security is funded by others”.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed and more than a million displaced in Sudan since battles between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads a paramilitary force, erupted in April.

The unrest has caused about 200,000 to flee into nearby countries and those still in Khartoum are struggling to survive.