African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres jointly warned on Wednesday, 14 May that external interference — including the supply of weapons, fighters, and finances — is the primary driver of escalating security crises across Africa. The two leaders spoke at a joint press conference at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, following the signing of a new declaration to strengthen the AU-UN partnership.

What the AU Commission Chairperson Said

'Most of the security crises on the continent are fueled from abroad. Financial resources, ammunition, sometimes even fighters come to fight another war from other continents,' Youssouf told reporters. He identified the Sahel, Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as the most acutely affected regions.

Youssouf went further, alleging that external actors are actively disrupting mediation and peace resolution processes — not merely arming combatants. He insisted that the AU must lead any peace negotiations on the continent, invoking the principle of 'African solutions to African conflicts.' The interference, he said, is forcing the AU, UN, and partner organisations to commit disproportionate resources just to contain — let alone resolve — ongoing crises.

Guterres Calls Interference 'Absolutely Intolerable'

Guterres was unambiguous in his condemnation. 'It is absolutely intolerable that countries that are external to Africa interfere in African conflicts, providing weapons and political support to serve their strategic or economic interests,' he said. He called for coordinated diplomacy to 'create the conditions for this kind of interference to cease.'

The UN chief also flagged an emerging pattern in modern African conflict: wars in which regular militaries do not confront each other directly but instead deploy drones against civilian populations. 'We also raise our voices, denouncing those countries that are providing drones that are not manufactured in Africa, as they are causing terrible sacrifice for the African people,' Guterres added.

The New AU-UN Declaration

The joint statement came on the back of a freshly signed declaration aimed at deepening institutional cooperation between the two bodies. While the specific provisions of the declaration were not detailed at the press conference, the signing signals a renewed commitment to coordinated crisis management at a time when African theatres of conflict are drawing in an increasing number of external state and non-state actors.

Why This Matters

The warnings from Addis Ababa arrive at a moment of heightened instability across multiple African sub-regions. The Sahel has seen a wave of military coups since 2020, with several new governments expelling Western forces and reportedly inviting private military operators. In eastern DRC, the conflict has intensified sharply in 2025, with allegations of cross-border arms flows from multiple directions. Sudan's civil war, now in its third year, has drawn in regional powers accused of supplying rival factions.

Notably, both leaders stopped short of naming specific countries, but the reference to non-African drones and external fighters points to a well-documented pattern that analysts and human rights organisations have flagged for years. The call for African-led mediation also implicitly pushes back against unilateral interventions by global powers under the guise of security partnerships.

The next test will be whether the renewed AU-UN framework translates into concrete diplomatic pressure on external actors — or remains a statement of principle.