‘They were living that 16 days in horror’
Hamilton community gathers outside city hall to appeal to Canadians: ‘Sudan needs our help’
The reverberating sound of bombs exploding across the city. The dull thud of gunfire penetrating walls. Ricocheting bullets. An entire family sleeping on mattresses in one room, wardrobes lined up to form a makeshift shelter.
This is how Eisham Abdulkarim’s family, including his mother and pregnant sister-inlaw, lived for more than two weeks after violent conflict broke out in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum last month.
“They were living those 16 days in horror,” the Sudanese Canadian man said at a rally in Hamilton on Saturday. “They thought they all were going to die.”
More than a hundred gathered outside city hall calling for “peace for Sudan,” raising flags, posters and voices on Main Street East. “Sudan needs our help,” a brightly coloured poster read. “Protect civilians in Sudan,” read another. And, on a poignant sign covered in red hand prints: “Your silence is violence.”
Violence erupted in the sweeping east African country in mid-April as state military clashed with the powerful Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.
“We want to rally efforts to help people who are affected by the war in Sudan,” Ahmed Ismail, chair of the Sudanese Canadian League of Hamilton, told The Spectator.
The organization is imploring the federal government to pressure the state’s warring factions to stop the violence and support the country’s ongoing transition to democracy, Ismail said Saturday afternoon.
On the same day and after weeks of violence, factions agreed to a seven-day ceasefire beginning on Monday, The Associated Press reported.
The community is calling on Ottawa to support Sudanese refugees seeking asylum, he said. In April, the government evacuated hundreds of Canadian citizens and permanent residents from Sudan.
“We expect more,” he said. Since the violence began April 15, hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. An estimated 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the deadly conflict, the United Nations said this month, adding to the millions of Sudanese internally displaced before the most recent conflict.
But it’s not just bullets and bombs that kill, he said. There is limited food and water. Where it’s available, it’s unaffordable. Medication is scarce. More than two-thirds of Khartoum’s hospitals shut down within two weeks of the conflict, the World Health Organization reported, leaving citizens without medical care.
“If not stopped, this war will turn into a civil war all over the country,” Ismail said.
Two weeks into the fighting, Abdulkarim’s family embarked on a harrowing journey out of the city, fearing the worst at each military checkpoint. In Shandi, a city about 200 kilometres from the chaos of the capital, they were forced to pay “skyrocketing” rent, profiteering from conflict, he said.
Ismail, too, has family in Sudan. Some have escaped the capital, living in Bara, a city about 360 kilometres away, but others remain in conflict-ridden Khartoum. They’re in the war zone, and they’re scared, he said.
“I talk to them every day, many times a day, just to make sure that they’re still alive.”