As the federal government belatedly imposed sanctions Monday against those it blames for perpetuating a year-long civil war in Sudan, the country’s former ambassador to Ottawa said Canada can help pave the way to peace.
“The world should be shocked by the unparalleled calamity occurring in Sudan,” said Tarig Abusalih, its most recent ambassador to Canada.
A year ago, a long-running political dispute between branches of Sudan’s military erupted into armed conflict that caused Western countries to evacuate their citizens and led to what the United Nations calls the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
The paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces is accused of trying to replicate the Darfur genocide, while the army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, has also been blamed for brazen acts of violence.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Russia are accused of providing cash and weapons to warring parties, with recent reports that long-distance drones from abroad are being used in the conflict.
The Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights issued a report Monday developing the case that a genocide is already underway, presenting documentation of massacres, sexual violence and public executions imposed on an ethnic basis.
From the beginning, Canada expressed serious concern about the civil war.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Abusalih on the day the fighting broke out, when the two were attending a community event near Toronto.
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly traveled to Kenya to meet with regional leaders about how Africans could help promote peace in Sudan, and Canada allocated humanitarian aid.
It was all part of what Abusalih called a flurry of activity in the early months of the war, when Global Affairs Canada communicated regularly about how Ottawa could support the Sudanese people and try to help end the conflict.
However, until this week little had happened since last summer.
Joly had not mentioned the Sudan war in public statements for months when last week, on the eve of the first anniversary of the conflict, International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen announced more humanitarian funding.
On Monday, Joly announced sanctions against those who “directly or indirectly undermine peace, security and stability in Sudan,” some seven months after Washington took a similar measure.
Among those sanctioned are Sudanese paramilitary commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo and former Foreign Minister Ali Karti, who led an Islamist group that opposes the democratic government. Ottawa is also sanctioning four companies it accuses of emboldening both warring factions.
“This is a small first step by the Canadian government after a year of inaction as civil war broke out in Sudan, with thousands of people killed, displaced and now on the brink of a man-made famine,” said MP Heather McPherson, NDP foreign affairs critique. in a statement on Monday.
Abusalih said Sudan deeply appreciates the $170 million Canada allocated last year for Sudanese inside the country and those who have fled to neighboring states.
Canada has supplemented that funding with another $132 million, part of a $2.1 billion fund for humanitarian aid promised Monday at a global conference Hussen attended in Paris.
Abusalih said Sudanese people facing hunger, lack of medicine and violence in the camps desperately need money.
“I hope that the Paris conference is not just an international public relations campaign, because in the past we used to have such conferences for Sudan,” he said.
“Nothing came of these conferences and I hope that all countries soon fulfill their promises.”
Abusalih resigned from Sudan’s foreign service in October, six months after the war, which he said was one of the factors that led him to resign.
Since then, Sudan has had only two diplomats in Ottawa, representing a country of 48 million people.
Sudanese people respect Canada, Abusalih said, and many remember how the former Canadian International Development Agency helped lead the mechanization of agriculture in the country.
Abusalih said Canada could help create a transition plan for a post-conflict Sudan, in which an interim group of non-partisan experts could manage the country and resolve the humanitarian crisis before democratic elections.
Whatever happens, neither of the dueling groups will be able to take control of the country, he said.
“We need more efforts from the international community to end the ongoing war in Sudan,” he said.
“After the end of this war, we need the United Nations and our friends to convene an international conference for the reconstruction of Sudan.”
Meanwhile, Canada has yet to reunite a single family with relatives who are trying to escape the conflict.
Ottawa last December announced a program designed to allow people fleeing Sudan to reunite with family members in Canada who have the means to provide them with financial support.
Canadians with relatives in Sudan say the program is too cumbersome and expensive, while the government says it doesn’t expect to welcome anyone until almost a year after last December’s announcement.
Abusalih said he hopes Canada can accelerate the program and pressure other countries to stop the two factions fighting.
“There is no winner in this war and, in the end, the loser is the Sudanese people,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2024.