‘Nobody is okay’: Halifax’s Sudanese community fear for family and friends amid conflict

Halifax’s Sudanese community is working together to send aid and support, as family and friends in their home country try to flee the conflict raging there.

Fighting began to break out across the country on April 15, including in the capital city of Khartoum.

From the moment the fighting began, Huwaida Medani feared for her family members who are trying to survive in Khartoum.

“For most of them, they have fluctuating power, some of them do not have water, food is getting scarce and nobody is okay,” she said.

Medani is the president of the Sudanese Association of the Maritimes and has lived in Nova Scotia for 18 years, ever since she moved from Sudan. Her concern about her homeland is shared with the rest of the Sudanese community in Halifax.

“We have a very wounded community in Halifax because a big number of them are refugees, because of what they have seen in their areas in Sudan. They fled Sudan many years ago and they were hopeful that things would be better, but things are unfortunately deteriorating now.”

The last time Khartoum was invaded was in 1884 when the Mahdist army besieged the city, until it fell on January 26, 1885. Currently the city has a population of around 9 million residents.

Now the city is currently being torn between the forces of Sudan’s army led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Both al-Burhan and Dagalo originally worked together in organizing a coup that resulted in the end of a civilian-ruled government in October 2021.

“Unfortunately, some people call it a civil war. It is not a civil war,” Medani said. In her words the conflict is with a military raised militia that was created to support them in a previous operation.

“This is just a silly fight over power between two men. Two crazy, vicious, notorious war criminals.”

Unfortunately all she is able to do at the moment is focus on what’s happening from her home in Halifax. But, Medani was luckily able to get transport for one of her sisters and family 150 kilometres north of Khartoum, to her parent’s village.

Yasir Ga’far is an entrepreneur who moved to Halifax from Sudan two years ago. He’s been sharing videos from all sides of the conflict through his Facebook. He gets information from his family and friends, who are trying their best to either escape or survive the violence. Some of his friends almost became refugees.

“They were looking for guys to buy from the black market, so they can go with [a] car to go out of Khartoum, maybe to neighbouring countries like Ethiopia or Egypt,” he said.

Even though Ga’far can’t directly help, he’s been reaching out to members of the Sudanese community in Halifax to see what they can do to support their homeland. He is hoping that they can get support not just from the Sudanese community, but also aid from charity organizations, to send urgent medical and food supplies.

Ga’far believes being properly organized is the key to help.

“We just need help [to] figure out how to do this in a legal way. What do we need? What are the legal requirements? What are the procedures we need to follow to be able to organize ourselves and launch some sort of fundraising campaign?”

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Sudan power struggle continues leaving dozens dead

The death toll from the war has reached around 300. Despite there being a planned 24-hour ceasefire, the fighting continues.

“They are basically using the public, people, as human shields,” said Medani.

She and other organizers are planning a rally on Saturday at Victoria Park in downtown Halifax. The event will begin at 1 p.m. and donations will be collected to fundraise for medical supplies, said Medani.

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