‘Everyone abandoned us’: Sudanese-Canadians’ plea for help as crisis in Sudan spirals ‘out of control’

Families trying to assist loved ones abroad could face more challenges as the federal budget aims to cut spending on Global Affairs. Heather Wright reports.

His home in Markham, Ont., is more than 10,000 kilometres from Sudan, but Ashraf Ahmed’s thoughts are almost always on his home country.

“The number of killed people, displaced (people), make the war in Sudan the biggest tragedy in recent history,” he says.

Ahmed is one of many Sudanese-Canadians worried about loved ones stuck in the middle of a more than two-year long conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and left nearly 25 million facing acute hunger, according to the United Nations.

“I have six or seven uncles. I have 20-something cousins. All of them, no exceptions, are displaced within the country, within Sudan,” he says. His parents and in-laws were all able to escape Sudan but are stuck in Saudi Arabia as they wait for visas to travel to Canada, a process that has taken more than two years. His mother-in-law passed away last year.

“Her grandchildren, my children, were not able to see her,” Ahmed says.

The war between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in 2023 and has escalated dramatically over the last week with the RSF taking control of the city of El Fasher in North Darfur.

Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee the city on foot, with survivors describing scenes of horror: fighters going house-to-house shooting civilians, women being raped and hundreds killed inside a hospital.

“We can see blood from the satellite images,” says Sadia Araa, a pharmacy technician who lives in Ottawa and is originally from El Fasher. In addition to showing blood in the sand, satellite images have also shown evidence that RSF fighters may be digging mass graves.

Araa is calling on countries like Canada to do more to stop the war. Like many Sudanese-Canadians, Araa says she feels abandoned by the international community which she says has paid little attention to this conflict.

“Everyone abandoned us,” she says. “The UN, everyone. If they have power, they haven’t done anything.”

While Araa’s mother was able to get to Canada, she says the process took more than two years. Her mother arrived in May, but her father passed away before his application was approved. With Ottawa announcing cuts to foreign aid in its budget, Araa worries processing times for refugees will be impacted in addition to the amount of aid Canada sends to Sudan.

“If you cut the budget, imagine what’s going to happen. It’s already the worst humanitarian (crisis) right now… in the whole planet,” she says.

Canada has sent more than $100 million in aid to Sudan since the war began. In a statement, the Ministry of Finance did not elaborate on whether cuts will impact the amount aid Canada sends to Sudan in the future.

“Details on Global Affairs Canada’s policy adjustments under the Comprehensive Expenditure Review will be communicated in due course,” spokesman Benoit Mayrand said in an email to CTV News.

Some human rights groups have also been calling on Canada to do more to stop this conflict, namely when it comes to weapons. The United Arab Emirates has been accused of arming the RSF and some believe Canadian weapons are part of these shipments. The UAE denies arming the paramilitary group.

With the crisis in Sudan unfolding alongside several other conflicts including the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, experts say it has been largely ignored by many despite the staggering level of suffering.

“We have been incredibly silent on this (conflict),” says Kerry Bowan, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto. “When you ignore atrocities on this scale it dehumanizes all of us and makes the world a less stable place.”

This week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the crisis is “spiralling out of control.”

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped by this siege,” Guterres said Tuesday. “People are dying of malnutrition, disease and violence. And we are hearing continued reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.”

For people like Ahmed, he hopes with more attention will come more help for his homeland.

“Doing a little will yield a lot,” he says. “Serious and meaningful intervention will help save lots of life.”