(Ottawa) Canada has a role to play in leading a global effort to end a brutal civil war that has displaced far more people than conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, said a former Canadian ambassador to Sudan.
“Frankly, we are at almost zero [sanctions] said Nicholas Coghlan, noting that Ottawa was lagging behind its allies in imposing sanctions on those who support warlords in conflict.
“If we are serious about re-engaging with Africa, this conflict is absolutely crucial, because it extends not only to Africa (but) also to the Middle East. »
Sudan has been ruled by military leaders for most of its recent history, and negotiations to establish civilian rule failed last April when two unpopular generals fought for influence.
Clashes between Sudan’s armed forces and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have begun in Khartoum, a capital of five million people.
Fighting has spread to large swaths of the East African country, leading to the collapse of health and education systems.
UN agencies say the war has caused the planet’s worst displacement crisis, forcing 7.5 million people from their homes, risking further genocide in Darfur and causing cholera outbreaks and widespread famine.
For decades, Sudan has faced ethnic tensions between northern and southern groups, leading to the creation of South Sudan in 2021.
Mr. Coghlan said Canada played “a very constructive secondary role” between the late 1990s and mid-2000s in asking peacekeepers to oversee the split.
Ottawa also helped stop the genocide perpetrated against the ethnic population of Darfur in the region, in the west of the country, around twenty years ago.
Western efforts to bring stability to the region have been led primarily by the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway, along with a bloc of East African governments.
No sanctions yet
When the current conflict in Sudan began last April, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly traveled to neighboring Kenya to meet with officials from the same regional group of six countries, known as the Intergovernmental Authority For the development.
As fighting engulfed Khartoum, Canada and other foreign countries evacuated their citizens via airlifts and dangerous road convoys to the country’s main port. Canada has since allocated $71 million in humanitarian aid and called for peace.
But the federal government has yet to impose sanctions on any person or company accused of supporting the war in Sudan, even though the United States, United Kingdom and European Union have all done so.
Global Affairs Canada did not respond last week to questions about why Ottawa did not make such a decision.
“We are not in the loop like for example (the) UK, Norway, the Nordic countries, the EU, etc. said Nicholas Coghlan.
“It seems we believe in sanctions. And yet, if you look at the list (of individuals sanctioned by Canada), there are hundreds for Belarus, hundreds for Zimbabwe, hundreds for Russia, for Iran, etc., but not one for Sudan. »
New reports suggest the conflict is spreading. Media reports that Egypt and Iran have sent drones to the Sudanese armed forces, while the United Arab Emirates has denied reports that it is arming the rival RSF. “The potential for escalation is really, really big,” Mr Coghlan said.
Also, Canada currently finds itself without an ambassador to Sudan.
Envoys from other Western countries have left the country, but remain responsible for monitoring events in Sudan, however the Canadian government has reassigned its former ambassador to Sudan to an entirely different role.
Mr. Coghlan said Canada should appoint a senior envoy to support small-scale peace initiatives in the region and rally other countries with declarations and sanctions that could put pressure on warlords to they put an end to the violence.
He added that there was currently no room for peace negotiators in this “intractable” conflict and that there was no widely supported civilian group that could lead the country.
But he said such an envoy could provide real-time intelligence to Canadian officials and find peace and humanitarian projects worth supporting.
Support local organizations for tangible results
Marv Koop, a Canadian retired after decades of development work in Sudan, now advises Sudanese nonprofit organizations led by women and youth.
He confirmed that a special envoy would help advance human rights, and Canada is already known for vigorously combating tactics in the conflict, including the use of child soldiers and sexual violence.
“The social fabric of a country is being completely torn apart in front of everyone’s eyes, except that no one is watching,” Koop said Monday from neighboring Uganda.
“Canada should potentially be interested and could make a difference on the world stage, because these are Canadian values. »
Some local groups, calling themselves “emergency response rooms”, provide humanitarian aid, including food, housing and basic medical supplies, to areas where the Sudanese government or militant groups impede movement. larger organizations, such as United Nations agencies.
Omima Omer Jabal Yagwb, who heads such an organization in the Jabal Awliya region south of Khartoum, says her group started when people ran out of food, electricity and clean water a month after the start of the conflict.
“We had to walk miles, just to find the food needed to provide a meal or two to the people (in our) neighborhoods,” she said last week during a roundtable organized by the Institute American for Peace.
“With this very tight budget, we sometimes had to choose between saving lives or providing food. You’d be lucky if you ate two meals a day; you would be very lucky. »
MM. Koop and Coghlan argued that such efforts can bring tangible results for people with minimal funding, even if the logistics of tracking those dollars could be complicated.
Mr. Coghlan said that beyond finding ways to support such groups, the long-term goal could be for Canada to use its G7 presidency next year to get its allies to push warlords towards a ceasefire and a political solution.
The crisis in Sudan is expected to feature prominently during hearings by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Canada’s engagement with Africa, which will welcome its first non-governmental witnesses on Wednesday.
In late 2022, senators including Peter Harder and Amina Gerba warned the government that Canada was falling behind its peers in developing trade and development strategies with a continent almost expected to double its population by 2050.
Liberals have been promising a strategy for Africa for years. The long-awaited document was described last year as a framework and has not yet been released.