At the conclusion of their summit in Addis Ababa, African leaders reject foreign interference in Libyan affairs

African Union leaders pledged today, Monday, to advance peace efforts in Libya, and demanded an end to the ceasefire, and renewed their rejection of external interference.

At its 33rd summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, for two days, the Union mandated its Libyan committee to continue to support the comprehensive political process led by the Libyans to reach a solution.

The African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ismail Sharqi, offered to help revive the stalled United Nations-led peace process.

"The African Union wants to have a role alongside the United Nations to monitor the ceasefire in Libya," Sharqi said. Secondly, we want full respect for the arms embargo to Libya, and thirdly, we want an immediate cessation of foreign interference in Libyan affairs. "

Libya, which has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa, is plunging into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011 following a popular revolution and military intervention led by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The conflict has been raging in Libya since April 2019, as fighting rages south of Tripoli (west of the country) between the forces of the United Nations-recognized National Accord government and the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter who launched an offensive to control the capital.

Major General Haftar is mainly supported by the UAE, Egypt and Russia, while Turkey supports the national reconciliation government.

A fragile truce went into effect on January 12, and efforts are under way to turn it into a permanent ceasefire.

And last Saturday, the meetings of the two military commissions - which are the representatives of the two parties to the conflict - ended in Geneva, under the auspices of the United Nations, without reaching an agreement.

South African President Cyril Ramabusa, who took over the presidency of the African Union, said on Sunday that Libya is suffering from one of two conflicts on the continent, stressing his desire to focus on resolving it during his presidency.

South Sudan
Another conflict is the conflict in the state of South Sudan, which has been experiencing a civil war since 2013, which has killed hundreds of thousands. However, the talks that took place on the sidelines of the summit ended in a dead end.

Meanwhile, union leaders have tried to push the parties to the conflict in South Sudan to reach an agreement.

President Selvakir Mayardit and rebel leader Riek Machar are facing a deadline of February 22 to form a unity government, a process that has been postponed twice last year.

Ramabusa met Salva Kiir and Machar separately last Saturday, and the two rivals sat in the same room Sunday with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk.

Hamddock is the current chair of the Inter-Governmental Authority on East African Development (IGAD), which is leading the negotiations for peace in South Sudan.

However, the intense activities on the sidelines of the African Union summit did not result in a breakthrough in the dispute over the number of states in southern Sudan, which is a thorny issue because the borders will create divisions in power and control in the emerging country.

In a statement, IGAD stated that the formation of the national unity government "was postponed twice in May and November, and any further extension that is neither desirable nor enforceable at this stage of the peace process".

South Sudan plunged into a civil war in 2013, just two years after its independence from Sudan. After Salva Kiir (from the Dinka ethnicity), the matter began to accuse Machar (from the Nuer ethnicity) of planning a military coup.

The conflict witnessed atrocities, including murder and rape, and resulted in 380,000 deaths and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.