McLeod Group guest blog by Nicholas Coghlan, May 21, 2024
By most measurements, Sudan is the gravest humanitarian crisis in the world today. One theatre of a country-wide war – Darfur – is seeing a reprise of the genocide of 2002-2003, as the descendants of the Janjaweed prepare an onslaught on the city of El Fasher. Khartoum, the national capital, is contested block by block while the country’s breadbasket, Gezira State, is another battlefield. Five million are facing famine by July.
Proliferation is under way. The United Arab Emirates are brazenly backing one party to the fighting (the Rapid Support Forces of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti) with materiel. They have even lent him a royal passenger jet as he lobbies for support in the region. Meanwhile General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudan Armed Forces counts on Egypt and has renewed ties with Iran with a view to securing a supply of drones. Russia hovers ominously on the margins, playing both sides.
South Sudan – a desperately fragile state in its own right – is watching in horror. With its principal oil outlet shut down, its sole source of external revenue has been slashed by more than half. If the shutdown continues, it faces collapse.
Ignoring the war
All of this is being reported internationally, including by the CBC, CTV and the Globe and Mail. Canadian activists are playing their part too: in April 2024, the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights publicly concluded that a genocide is under way in Darfur.
Nonetheless there have been no public talks about a ceasefire since May 2023. It is not accurate to describe Sudan as a forgotten war. But it is a war that is being ignored.
Once, George Clooney and then-Senator Joe Biden were on TV screens every day to talk about Sudan. Prime Minister Paul Martin travelled to Khartoum in 2004 to beard the government. Clooney is silent today. Neither President Biden nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has commented on Sudan since May 2023, nor has Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.
Why the inattention? Most obviously, there is too much else going on in the world for the West to pay much attention to Sudan. With reason, the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza (and the spectre of nuclear weapons hovering) are occupying much of the available bandwidth in the foreign ministries of Europe and North America.
By contrast, the motivations of the Sudanese generals, whether RSF or SAF, and their forces elicit no sympathy, or even understanding in most people outside their ranks. None of the three outcomes that are currently conceivable – an outright SAF victory leading to reinstallation of military dictatorship; a victory by the RSF, with its record of genocide; or a divided country, Libya-style – are remotely desirable.
Canada’s role
Canada has been complicit in this conspiracy of silence. On the outbreak of fighting in the capital in April 2023, like most of our allies, we closed our embassy and evacuated our staff, along with many Canadian citizens. The operation was well executed. But unlike our allies who maintain senior personnel in the region, we reassigned all staff, including the ambassador, to other duties.
A special immigration program has been implemented for people fleeing the conflict. Uptake has been modest so far and the process – which requires biometrics and a Canadian relative as a sponsor – is turning out to be very cumbersome. The first arrival under this program is not expected until 2025. Contrast that with the far less demanding and more speedily executed program that has seen a million Temporary Emergency Visas issued to Ukrainian refugees over the past two years.
Canada contributed a substantial amount of humanitarian assistance, $170 million, in 2023. It was followed by an additional $130 million in 2024. In April 2024, Canada sanctioned six individuals and entities, carefully targeting both the RSF and the SAF and their respective support networks. The US, UK and EU had earlier announced similar sanctions.
The visa program, the humanitarian aid and the sanctions are all positive and significant. But, in light of the gravity of the crisis in Sudan, its likely longevity and our stated intent to “re-engage” with Africa, we can and should be doing a lot more.
More proactively, Canada should reappoint a senior official and station them in the region. They should have a mandate to closely monitor developments; identify useful Canadian niches when peace initiatives gain traction; coordinate with allies and regional bodies such as the African Union; and recommend timely high-level statements and interventions. They should also look for creative ways of maximizing returns on our aid allocation, for example to the informal community-led Emergency Response Rooms that are keeping ordinary Sudanese alive.
With Canada taking up the presidency of the G7 in 2025, we should ensure that Sudan has a prominent place on the agendas of leaders and foreign ministers. Meanwhile, in consultation with Europe and the US, we should enact further sanctions, especially on the gold-marketing networks that enable the financing of the war.
The Sudanese diaspora in Canada – 20,000 strong – is a valuable resource for consultation and expertise. But at the same time there are a few individuals in that community who merit a watchful eye on the part of CSIS and the RCMP. They should be investigated and prosecuted should their actions and words in support of violence in Sudan qualify as hate speech.
We should identify and address the chokepoints on our humanitarian visa program and extend the existing visas of Sudanese nationals in Canada who find themselves unable to return home.
When we closed our embassy in Sudan in April 2023, Canada not only left the stage, we left the theatre. Hopefully, the sanctions announcement and the renewed aid signal cautious re-engagement. But humanitarian aid cannot be an alibi for political inaction. We need to be much bolder, get back in and once more play a useful supporting role.
Nicholas Coghlan was the first Canadian diplomat ever to be posted to Sudan. He is the author of Far in the Waste Sudan: On Assignment in Africa and Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat’s Memoir of South Sudan. Image: AFP/Ashraf Shazly.