Former President Uhuru Kenyatta has challenged African leaders to prioritise peaceful endeavours as a means of bettering the lives of civilians.

Speaking at the ongoing inaugural East Africa Region Global Health Security summit on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, Kenyatta pointed out the need for Africans and East African region in particular, to devote to measures aimed at promoting peace, prevent conflicts and resolve disputes.

Uhuru, who is the current peace envoy for Ethiopia, the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa, lamented the sporadic fights and killing happening across Sudan and DRC saying it has claimed the lives of more Africans than those lost to pandemic like COVID

“We have to begin to reprioritize what is important for us as Africans and where our resources go,” he said

Let us remember the amount of resources we waste killing each other. When you see the devastation caused across the continent. We have lost more people to bullets fired by Africans against Africans than those lost to Corona. We spend more to buy those bullets to kill ourselves than we’ve actually spent to help society and our health.”

He ultimately challenged the continent on a collective responsibility of improving the lives of citizens.

“Seeking an end to wars and a collaboration towards putting an end to these conflicts and being able to repurpose our resources to where they can have the greatest impact on our population therefore shall remain the biggest and vital agenda for Africa,” he said.

Uhuru’s calls for a peaceful co-existence comes amid the raging conflicts and civil wars threatening the unity of the east African region and beyond.

On Tuesday, January, 28 President William Ruto sounded an alarm over the escalating tensions between DRC and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have taken control of Goma.

The 30-year-old conflict stems from a long-standing between armed groups fighting for control of the town of Goma, a mineral-endowed east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A marauding protesters on Tuesday attacked the embassies of the United States, Kenya and Uganda in the region while protesting the widespread impacts of the conflict.

In Sudan. a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has displaced over 8.2 million people and caused 15000 deaths.