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| President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt with South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa |
African Union (AU) leaders met on Tuesday for the first time in
Cairo, Egypt in an effort to seek a coherent regional approach to
the crises in Sudan and Libya.
Their host, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, warned against "a slide into chaos" in a statement released before the talks.
President
al-Sisi is the President of the Africa Union which has given the
Transitional Military Council in Sudan until the end of the month to
hand over to a civilian government.
The council has
been in office since protests over dictatorship and economic distress
forced former leader Omar al-Bashir to step down.
Attendees
in the Cairo summit include Chadian President Idriss Deby, Rwanda's
head of state Paul Kagame, Congo's Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Somalia's
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Djibouti's
leader Ismail Omar Guelleh. AU commission chair Moussa Faki is also
expected to participate in the Cairo discussions, along with officials
from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria.
The summits are the first to be convened by African leaders on the current crises in Sudan and Libya.
Mr
Sisi called for a coherent regional response as protests continued in
Khartoum and as strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces bear down on Tripoli.
The leaders, he said, were to focus on "the evolution of the situation in Sudan."
On Libya the summit will seek to "stem the current crisis, to relaunch a political process (and) the elimination of terrorism."
"The
principle of African solutions to African problems is the only way to
deal with common challenges facing us," Sisi said in opening remarks to
the summit on Sudan, according to Egypt's presidency.
"We are taking
into account the efforts the Sudanese transitional military council has
taken as well as the civil and political forces... to overcome this
critical juncture," Sisi said.
Sudan's military council has so far resisted calls from protesters to stand aside immediately for a civilian administration.
Sisi cautioned Sudanese political actors to "safeguard the state's institutions...in order to prevent a slide into chaos".
Last
month, he warned against the dangers created by protests, but fell
short of explicitly naming Sudan, or Algeria, where demonstrations have
toppled long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The Egyptian president
also called on the international community to "shoulder the pressing
economic burden" created by Sudan's challenges.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday announced $3 billion in financial support for Khartoum.
The
AU on April 15 threatened to suspend Sudan if the military does not
hand over power within 15 days of that date to a civilian authority.
The AU suspended Egypt and the Central African Republic in 2013 following coups in both countries.
Both have since had their membership restored.
Libya
strongman Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army launched an
offensive against Tripoli, the seat of the internationally recognised
Government of National Accord, on April 4.
The battle in the south of
the capital between the LNA and forces aligned with the GNA has so far
left more than 260 dead and wounded more than 1,200 others, according to
the World Health Organization.
The United Nations says the Haftar offensive has also displaced more than 30,000 people.
Egypt
is a strong ally of Haftar, who is also backed by the UAE and --
according to the White House -- was consulted by US President Donald
Trump in a phone call last week.
Before the launch of
the Tripoli assault, Faki had said the AU would host a "reconciliation"
conference in July aimed at uniting Libya's political rivals.
Libya
has been mired in chaos since the 2011 ouster of dictator Muammar
Ghadafi and a series of international efforts have so far failed to
unite the country.
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