Montreal community unites to show solidarity with Sudan

Fundraiser dinner raises awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis

NewsShyam Ragavan — Published September 1, 2024 4 minutes

The event was organized by Zoleh Curations, a community initiative dedicated to organizing third space events and experiences.

All proceeds went to the Sudan Solidarity Collective, a volunteer collective formed by the Sudanese community at the University of Toronto. The collective seeks to launch a Sudan Solidarity Fund and to challenge the barriers people are facing due to war-related loss and trauma.

Café La Place Commune, a non-profit solidarity cooperative in Parc-Extension, volunteered to help cook traditional Sudanese cuisine for the event.

Sarah Khalid, one of the lead organizers of the event, grew up eating the food that was served at the event.

“We wanted to make sure that we were highlighting the main ingredients and flavours that represented the country,” Khalid said.

One of the ingredients showcased at the dinner was ‘Shamar,’ a ground fennel used in almost every single Sudanese dish. Another dish was ‘Fuul,’ which consisted of fava beans cooked in onions and tomatoes.

Aug. 27 marked 500 days since intense conflict broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

Sudan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis.To date, at least 15,500 people have been killed and over 12 million people have been forced to leave their homes, with children representing around half of the people displaced. 

Duha Elmardi, an organizer from the Sudan Solidarity Collective, said her parents in Khartoum are heavily impacted.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that we are doing what we can from this part of the world [to] ensure that our governments here are not supporting [the war],” Elmardi said.

Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani, associate professor of political science and Islamic studies at McGill University and speaker at the event, said that the war has displaced everyone in the country. 

“None of us sitting here who are Sudanese have any houses left to call our own,” Medani said. “There is not one single Sudanese family whose home has not been taken over by militias.” 

The conflict started due to the 2018-2019 Sudanese revolution. In Dec. 2018, millions took up a nonviolent revolution to overthrow an authoritarian regime. 

“I think that no Sudanese [person] had expected this kind of expansion—a revolution and popular mobilization across ethnic groups, classes and regions,” Medani said.

This revolution overthrew the regime of the National Congress Party, which was involved in killing over a million Sudanese nationals. The military attempted to use their power to restore their authoritarian rule in Sudan, but protests continued, resulting in over a hundred deaths.

According to Medani, the conflict in Sudan is not a civil war as it is not supported by any Sudanese—it is against both civilians and the revolution.

“There is no support because [the SAF and RSF] for 20 years had allied together to kill as many Sudanese as they could in the context of putting down an insurgency in Darfur,” Medani said. “Both of them combined their forces to put down the revolution. [Leader of the RSF] General Hamdan Dagalo was financed by the army he’s fighting against right now.”

According to Elmardi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is responsible for funding the conflict.

“There's a lot of documentation out there to support that the RSF is funded by the UAE,” she said. “The UAE gets a lot of its gold from Sudan, [often] gold that gets smuggled from the gold mines in Sudan run by the RSF.”

Medani added that other governments are involved too. 

“Egypt monopolizes the Nile waters that come from Sudan, Russia has signed an agreement to have a logistical base on the Red Sea, and the US is deeply concerned about the Red Sea region because of the war in Gaza and the West Bank,” he said.

Sarah Elobaid, another organizer from the Sudan Solidarity Collective, said she believes that creating awareness about the situation in Sudan is important. 

“[You can help by] attending such events, giving Sudanese people visibility at a time where our suffering is rendered invisible and is purposely not spoken about because it benefits so many imperial powers,” Elobaid said.

Upcoming events and fundraisers for Sudan can be found on the Sudan Solidarity Collective’s website.