“We feel shunned”

On Saturday, February 22, on a bitterly cold and snowy afternoon in downtown Montréal, a demonstration was held by the Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec. The turnout was small and drew about 20 people to Square Philips.

The protest happened in the wake of an announcement made two days prior by Immigration Minister Marc Miller to increase the application quotas on humanitarian immigration pathways for Sudanese nationals. Canada made a new commitment to resettle 4,700 Sudanese refugees by 2026. Four thousand people will receive government assistance and 700 will be permitted to apply for refugee status through private sponsorship.

While demonstrators were encouraged by the expansion of the programs, they are demanding a more proportional response to the brutal civil war which has claimed over 150,000 lives and displaced over 12 million people since 2023. Sudanese-Canadians are calling on the federal government to put more pressure on the factions that are profiting from the war and directly funding genocide in the Darfur region.

Canada’s humanitarian family reunification program for Sudanese and non-Sudanese nationals who lived in Sudan when the war erupted was also reopened after last year’s closure. The federal program is adding 1,750 new spots for a total of 5,000 across Canada. This program now also includes 500 spots reserved for applicants from Québec, who were not previously eligible.

“It’s great news, obviously, but it’s not matching the need when we’re talking about the largest displacement crisis in the world,” Duha Elmardi of the Sudan Solidarity Collective told Canadian Dimension.

Applicants for the Québec reunification program have to apply before April 17 of this year. That gives applicants little more than a month to gather documents and submit biometric requirements, like fingerprints facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), amid a raging war that has targeted civilians.

It is only possible to meet these requirements in areas of Sudan where the IOM operates. And that is assuming the internet works. Sudan has been experiencing sustained internet blackouts. Apart from the documentation requirements, applicants for the family reunification program must pay application fees and prove they earn a stable income.

“Those who are receiving financial assistance or don’t meet that financial requirement are just supposed to watch their families face atrocities day in and day out,” Elmardi said. “Now, not only are we taking on this financial responsibility, we’re also having to resettle our families in an entirely different province.”

Last year, Sudanese-Canadians living in Québec were not eligible for the 3,250 family reunification spots. Due to community advocacy, however, 500 applications have been reserved for people living in Québec, but the new applicants and their families are required to resettle in another province.

Many Sudanese-Canadians have lived in Canada for decades; this country is their home. These Québecers now have to think about uprooting their lives and starting over in a province located thousands of kilometres away from their friends, communities, and careers. The family reunification program is not uniting families, Elmardi said, it is treating Sudanese-Canadians like second-class citizens.

“It’s a very strange approach. But it was the only condition for us to even be able to apply. We have to comply with that.”

A patchwork response

The impacts of the war are growing. Over 12 million people have now been displaced across Sudan, including over 3.4 million people who have fled to neighbouring countries. Hospitals have been targeted and bombed. Civilians are slaughtered daily with impunity. Medical and aid workers are routinely attacked and killed. Rape is being used as a weapon of war.

Sudanese activist Yasser Essa spoke with Canadian Dimension in the days after the demonstration. Essa specializes in humanitarian emergency response and has worked with numerous NGOs and United Nations agencies in Sudan including in Darfur.

As Essa explained, aid workers require permission from military and paramilitary leaders to deliver critical resources to people in need. Humanitarian aid is not always reaching communities in remote areas and there is little accountability as both warring parties—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the breakaway Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary army formerly operated by the government of Sudan—have accused one another of stealing and using humanitarian aid as a cover for military logistics.

“So many accusations have been raised, especially from the Sudanese government, that the RSF is using it for military purposes,” Essa said. “It’s very challenging because it doesn’t only involve logistics and accessibility, but also security. Humanitarian aid personnel have been killed or put their lives in danger in those areas because of lack of coordination or commitment to protecting humanitarian workers on the ground.”

The RSF does not have a functional humanitarian aid coordination mechanism, and the junta’s Sudan Humanitarian Aid Commission is generally not able to coordinate aid delivery to some areas because they are under RSF control.

Across Sudan, emergency response rooms (ERRs) have been essential in providing humanitarian aid such as basic medical care, community kitchens, and other supports. These grassroots networks evolved out of resistance committees that previously triggered the Sudanese revolution against the regime of Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Amid the decimation of Sudan’s infrastructure, including specialized hospitals and treatment centres, ERRs are critical in providing humanitarian aid to the displaced and wounded.

Last year alone, however, 54 aid workers for Sudanese and international organizations were reported killed in Sudan. Essa explained that ERR members in particular, many of whom were once members of resistance committees, are being deliberately targeted for revenge by the military and paramilitary forces they had once denounced.

This past fall, Ada Yee, Emergency Field Coordinator with Médicins sans Frontièrs (MSF), who worked in the mountainous region of Jebel Marra and Sudan’s second-largest city of Nyala in South Darfur in 2024, described some of the challenges facing aid workers, especially in areas controlled by militias. Yee noted that water, electricity, and telecommunications networks are barely functional. Both SAF and RSF forces have either bombed or opened fire in hospitals, or they have turned them into military bases. The overwhelming damage and subsequent occupation has severely incapacitated many facilities across Sudan’s rural regions, which are already neglected and lacking critical infrastructure to serve local populations and respond to crises.

In October 2023, Nyala was seized by the RSF and has since remained under its control. Airstrikes by the SAF earlier in February destroyed civilian buildings, killing 57 people and injuring dozens over two days.

“There are no rules of engagement,” Yee said, referring to the repeated targeting of medical workers and hospitals. “That has made our job incredibly difficult and also keeps other organizations away.”

Indeed, the humanitarian response to the crisis has been fraught from the start.

When international aid organizations evacuated Sudan in response to growing violence, they cut jobs for Sudanese aid workers. These cuts have restricted the country’s ability to respond to people in their greatest moment of need. Adding to this, US President Donald Trump’s executive order for a 90-day freeze on USAID funding, which has forced American-funded organizations to cease development work around the world, has wreaked havoc on aid delivery, including in Sudan. A ProPublica investigation recently reported that, despite Trump’s order, workers in US-funded medical facilities in Sudan have managed to keep their operations going—at least for now. But continued fighting has eroded the remaining relief efforts that haven’t had to depend on state funding.

Recently, amid the continued fighting over El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur, MSF announced the suspension of medical assistance at Zamzam refugee camp, one of the largest internally displaced persons camps in the country, located just 15 kilometres from El Fasher. The camp was already afflicted by famine. Due to RSF control, UN agencies are not present across the Darfur region. In many regions, MSF is the only international organization providing any medical care.

With diminishing options, the Sudanese people are being asked to endure the complete collapse of their country and its takeover by war criminals. While the world watches Sudan plummet into turmoil and criticizes the actions of the aggressors, doors remain closed.

Is there an end to the war?

The parties involved in Sudan’s faltering ceasefire negotiations have a vested interest in keeping the conflict going.

Fighting between state forces and militias has continued over the winter despite attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement in November. Even though Sudan voted in favour of a ceasefire, Russia vetoed it, stating that opposition to the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers is a threat to Sudan’s sovereignty.

UAE Minister of State, Shakhboot Nahyan Al Nahyan, has since called for a humanitarian ceasefire during Ramadan, but despite additional international appeals for an end to the conflict, a ceasefire has yet to be confirmed.

As the situation in Sudan evolves quickly, the RSF and allied militias, including the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which controls the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, recently signed a charter supporting a parallel government in Kenya, further legitimizing and bringing war criminals into power. The RSF has most prominently been backed by Libya and the UAE, with reports of Israeli weapons being used by the RSF. The UAE has denied supplying the RSF with arms amid heightened scrutiny during the recent ceasefire calls. While the RSF has allegedly received the support of Russian private military company Wagner Group, the Russian state has pledged military support to the SAF with an eye on access to a naval base on the Red Sea.

Those at the helm of this parallel government are responsible for war crimes and atrocities in the RSF-controlled Darfur region. Not only did former militia commander and current RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”) walk freely in Nairobi, so did his brother, Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo. The latter was sanctioned by Canada last year for accusations of contributing to the genocide of Masalit and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Geneina, West Darfur. As of February 28, UN Security Council members warned that the parallel government was fracturing the Sudanese state.

In January, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan announced that his office is preparing arrest warrants for people who have committed war crimes in the Darfur region. Details have yet to be announced.

In the meantime, Canada has simply followed the US’s lead in introducing new sanctions against RSF Major and Director of Procurement Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, along with SAF General Mirghani Idris Suleiman. This is in addition to two individuals and four companies sanctioned last year.

According to Mayada Ageeb, Acting Secretary General for the Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec, these sanctions are nothing more than a political move with no real effort to stop the war.

“At the moment, we feel incredibly shunned,” Ageeb said. “This is not an important agenda item as far as Canada is concerned… The proportion of the crisis versus the response is actually mind-boggling. What do we do? Do we wait for people to cease to exist for us to collectively act? I don’t understand. The displacement is only going to get worse. We need more proactive approaches… We have seen how Canada has reacted to others, and we would appreciate even a semblance of similarity.”

Next week, G7 leaders will meet in Charlevoix, Québec and again in Kananaskis, Alberta in June. At this point, activists have no indication that Sudan will be on the agenda. While Elmardi is critical of any form of intervention, she sees potential for Canada in applying diplomatic pressure.

“This is such a dangerous path that we’re going down,” Elmardi said. “This is where pressure is needed in terms of diplomacy: making sure that the United Arab Emirates is held accountable for their involvement in Sudan.”

Activists have called for a boycott of the UAE, including a grassroots campaign led by Sudanese activists called the People’s Arms Embargo to stop global weapons shipments to the country. Refugees International have also called for more accountability by foreign states that are fuelling both sides of the war.

Despite a two-decade global arms embargo on the country, there is growing scrutiny over the origins of weapons being used in Sudan. While there remains no indication that Canadian weapons are flowing there, according to Kelsey Gallagher of Project Ploughshares, Canada exports arms to countries that directly support warring parties. According to the organization’s latest report, in 2023 Canada exported $13.3 million worth of arms to the UAE and $1.5 million to Chad. Saudi Arabia is still the leading importer of Canadian arms.

“We need to see Canada’s pressure in contributing to end this war, because no matter what measures we put in place for facilitating immigration, it will not help bring peace to Sudan or move Sudanese people to safety,” Essa said, adding that sanctioning a handful of military and paramilitary leaders isn’t enough. “What about those who actually supply or have interests in seeing this war continue for their own benefit, and who are actually seen as allies to the West—especially the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt?”

The international community’s failure to act on Sudan has left small diasporas to shoulder the lives of millions—exhausted and unable to set down grief, the Sudanese put their lives on the line to get people to care and open a door. Sudan’s future continues to lie with the same vultures that hold a stake in the country’s continued bloodshed.

But even in the middle of a Montréal winter, Sudanese-Canadians and their supporters continue to show up with determination.

The Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec is now demanding faster application processing times and for Québec MPs to allow families to reunite through the family reunification program without having to experience additional displacement. Despite the small demonstrations and the immense struggles, Sudanese-Canadians are working to build solidarity between communities in Montréal where protests will continue every two weeks to make their voices and their cause heard.

Lital Khaikin is a freelance journalist and author based in Montréal, and regularly contributes features on humanitarian and environmental issues related to underreported regions and conflict zones.