Photo: Laura Hogan/www.rte.ie
By Scott Taylor
Up until violence erupted in Sudan on April 15, suffice it to say that most Canadians could not find this country on a map, let alone understand the complexity of the current conflict.
In a nutshell, back in 2019 the Sudanese Army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) jointly ousted the long-ruling autocrat, President Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
Since that juncture, Army Commander General Adbel Fattah al-Burhan has been the leader of Sudan’s ruling council, while his deputy has been the RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti.
In recent weeks an internationally brokered plan was to begin Sudan’s transition towards a future civilian rule.
Before the Army and the RSF relinquished their joint power to a civilian authority they decided instead to fight each other for sole control of Sudan.
The resultant clashes between these two military groups has led to widespread casualties among civilians.
For western countries with little to no skin in this game, the priority objective in the Sudan crisis has been the evacuation of foreign nationals.
On Sunday, April 23rd, the Canadian government announced that our diplomats had all been safely removed from Sudan and that they were now monitoring the situation from a safe third country.
However, at that stage of the escalating conflict, there was still an estimated 1800 Canadian nationals stranded in Sudan with at least 700 of those requesting evacuation.
On Thursday April 27th, Defence minister Anita Anand announced that the Canadian Armed Forces would be belatedly riding to the rescue.
Dubbed Operation SAVANNE, this evacuation effort is to involve an estimated 200 military personnel and two C130J Hercules transport aircraft. This will constitute the airlift component with an additional naval contingent consisting of the frigate HMCS Montreal, and the supply ship MV Asterix.
These two ships with their embarked CH-148 Cyclone helicopter will be available to conduct seaborne evacuations from the Red Sea.
The Canadian aircraft were reportedly staging through the French airbase in Djibouti en-route to Khartoum, Sudan.
The French effort in these evacuations is to be commended for its rapid implementation.
The first French deployment consisted of three A400M transport aircraft, and a contingent of special forces. They were on the ground in Sudan on the evening of April 22nd and the first evacuation flights began on April 23rd.
More importantly, the French were the first nation to establish a military presence at the Wadi Seidna Air Base outside of the city of Khartoum. As such, it was the French that were able to establish a coordinated international airlift – which I presume now includes the belated Canadian effort.
Between April 23-25 it was the French that organized vehicle convoys from the embattled Khartoum to the Wadi Seidna air base.
For security reason the French established two separate gathering points for the stranded internationals so that they would not have to cross any battle lines between the two warring Sudanese factions.
The French Navy deployed a frigate from Djibouti and on April 25 they embarked 400 UN employees at Port Sudan.
The French rescue operation known as SAGITTAIRE was actually considered complete by April 27th, just prior to Anand announcing Canada’s response.
One has to presume that with the situation on the ground being so fluid, the efforts of the Canadian military would have been enhanced if we had kept some sort of diplomatic foothold on the ground.
In August 2021 as the Taliban launched their lightning offensive to seize control of Afghanistan, the Canadian diplomats were also among the first to be evacuated.
In that instance, one could argue that with Canadian troops having fought against the Taliban from 2002 until the end of our combat mission in 2011, Canadian diplomats may have faced Taliban reprisals.
However, with Canada having a neutral position with both of the former ruling Sudanese military rivals, there would be no risk of targeted violence.
The diplomats would simply be facing the same threat of becoming collateral damage as those remaining 1800 Canadian nationals.
Presumably our diplomats would have established some personal relationships with Generals al-Burhan and Hemedti during their four years of joint rule.
Those sort of connections can be crucial in a crisis like this, but they become meaningless if the Canadian players have already bugged out.
The government’s announcement that all diplomats were safely evacuated on Sunday April 23rd was akin to the fire departments announcing that all fire-fighters had been safely removed from the burning firehall.
On Sunday April 30, the Canadian military announced that Operation SAVANNE was officially suspended due to the unrespected ceasefire on the ground and the fact that negotiations are now considered a challenge. Go figure.
