Hamilton doctor calls on feds to do more for Sudan

A Hamilton doctor is calling on the federal government to do more to help those suffering in Sudan. Dr. Abdelnasir Bashir’s elderly mother is stuck in the east African country, unable to get home to Hamilton due to violent clashes between the government and a rival paramilitary group.

The prime minister is thanking the government in neighbouring Djibouti on Monday for helping with Canadian evacuation efforts. The foreign affairs minister is on a trip to Kenya encouraging regional governments to help Sudan stop the fighting.

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Ottawa says at least 400 Canadians have left Sudan but 230 people who have asked for help remain, including the mother of Dr. Bashir who is frustrated by Ottawa’s efforts in Sudan. He asks, “Are the lives of Africans less valuable than Europeans?”

When comparing Canadian aid for Ukraine, to what he wants the federal government to do for Sudan, Dr. Bashir says his requests aren’t very large, “we’re not asking for tanks or fighter jets like Ukraine.”

He wants his 81-year-old Canadian mother Mahasin Ismaeel brought home, and emergency visas issued to his three Sudanese siblings. As well as other Sudanese refugees with family in Canada, and Sudanese women and children who have lost their husbands and fathers.

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Ismaeel was visiting her grandkids in Madani when the war broke out, and due to the fighting, was unable to get to Canadian evacuation flights in Khartoum. The deteriorating conditions on the ground have forced Canada to relocate evacuation efforts to Port Sudan, which is even further from Madani.

Bashir is also requesting the prime minister intervene personally by asking the leaders of the two warring sides to stop the fighting, and by freezing their foreign assets. He also wants Justin Trudeau to ask regional players like Egypt to refrain from taking sides and is hoping the prime minister will also provide more humanitarian aid.

On Monday, the United Nations warned that more than 800,000 people may flee the fighting, and warned the impact of that mass movement may create dire circumstances in neighbouring nations.

Abdou Dieng, United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan says, “a conflict that is turning Sudan humanitarian crisis into a full blow catastrophe.”

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The top UN official in Sudan says the Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary group have agreed to send representatives for negotiations, even as clashes continue in Khartoum despite the extension of a ceasefire.