OTTAWA — Canada has a role to play in steering a global effort to end a brutal civil war that has displaced far more people than conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, says a former Canadian ambassador to Sudan.
"We have, frankly, gone back to almost zero," said Nicholas Coghlan, noting that Ottawa is lagging behind its allies in issuing sanctions on those supporting feuding warlords.
"If we're serious about re-engagement with Africa, this conflict is absolutely key, because it is spilling over, not just in Africa (but) into the Middle East."
Sudan has been ruled by military chiefs for most of its recent history, and negotiations to install civilian rule collapsed last April as two unpopular generals fought for influence.
Clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces began in Khartoum, a capital city of five million people.
The fighting has spread through large swaths of the East African country, leading to the collapse of health and school systems.
United Nations agencies say the war has caused the worst displacement crisis on the planet, forcing 7.5 million people from their homes, risking another genocide in Darfur and causing cholera outbreaks and widespread hunger.
For decades, Sudan faced ethnic tensions between groups in the north and south, leading to the separate country of South Sudan being formed in 2021.
Coghlan said Canada played "a very constructive secondary role" in the late 1990s to mid-2000s in having peacekeepers oversee the split.
Ottawa also had a hand in helping to stem a genocide of ethnic Darfuri people in the Darfur region in the west of the country about two decades ago.
Western efforts to bring about stability in the region were primarily led by the United States, United Kingdom and Norway, in concert with a bloc of East African governments.
When Sudan's current conflict began last April, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly went to neighbouring Kenya to meet with officials from the same regional group of six countries, known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
As the fighting engulfed Khartoum, Canada and other foreign countries evacuated their citizens through airlifts and treacherous 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 issue sanctions on any people or companies accused of supporting the war in Sudan, even though the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union have all done so.
Global Affairs Canada did not respond to questions last week about why Ottawa hasn't made such a move.
"We're not on the ball in the way that, for example, (the) U.K., Norway, the Nordics, the EU and so on are," Coghlan said.
"It appears we believe in sanctions. And yet you look at that list (of individuals sanctioned by Canada) — there are hundreds for Belarus, hundreds for Zimbabwe, hundreds for Russia, for Iran and so on, but not one for Sudan."
Emerging reports suggest the conflict is widening out.
Media reports say Egypt and Iran have sent drones to the Sudanese Armed Forces, while the United Arab Emirates has denied reports that it is arming the rivalling RSF.
"The potential for escalation is really quite significant," said Coghlan.
Canada also currently finds itself with no ambassador to Sudan.
Envoys from other Western countries have moved outside the country but remain tasked with monitoring events in Sudan, but the Canadian government reassigned the former Sudan ambassador to another role altogether.
Coghlan said Canada ought to appoint a senior envoy to support small-scale peace initiatives in the region and get other countries on board with statements and sanctions that could pressure warlords into stopping the violence.
He said there is currently no room for peace negotiators in the "intractable" conflict, and there isn't a widely supported civilian group that could run the country.
But he said such an envoy could provide real-time intelligence to Canadian officials and find peace and humanitarian projects that are worth supporting.
Marv Koop, a Canadian who retired after decades of development work in Sudan, is now advising Sudanese non-profits run by women and youth.
He said a special envoy would help advance human rights, and Canada is already known for fighting strenuously against tactics at play in the conflict, including the use of child soldiers and sexual violence.
"The social fabric of a country is just being completely ripped apart in front of everybody's eyes, except nobody's watching," Koop said Monday from neighbouring Uganda.
"Canada should have some potential interest and could make a difference on a global platform, because it's Canadian values."
Some grassroots groups that call themselves "emergency response rooms" are providing humanitarian relief including food, housing and basic medical supplies in areas where the Sudanese government or militant groups are hindering the movement of larger organizations, such as UN bodies.
Omima Omer Jabal Yagwb, who runs such an organization in the Jabal Awliya area south of Khartoum, says her group got started when people ran out of food, electricity and clean water a month into the conflict.
"We had to walk miles in order just to find the food to provide a meal or two for people (in our) neighbourhoods," she told a panel last week hosted by the United States Institute of Peace.
"With this very tight budget, sometimes we had to choose either saving lives or providing food. You'd be lucky if you have two meals in a day; you'd be very lucky."
Koop and Coghlan said such efforts can bring tangible results for people with minimal funding, though the logistics of tracking those dollars could be complicated.
Coghlan said that beyond finding ways to support such groups, the longer-term goal could be for Canada to use its chairmanship of the G7 next year to get allies to push warlords toward a ceasefire and a political solution.
The crisis in Sudan is expected to loom large in hearings the Senate foreign-affairs committee is holding 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 is falling behind its peers in setting strategies for trade and development with a continent set to almost double in population by 2050.
The Liberals have promised an Africa strategy for years. The long-overdue document was described last year as a framework and has not yet been released.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2024.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
