Amid military coup, London's Sudanese community worried about loved ones back home
CBC
Gamal Tavadi of London, Ont., is worried about his friends and family back home in Sudan who are living through a military coup that threw the country into chaos late last month.
"I have all my brothers, sisters, cousins, I have a big family back home in Sudan. They're all over Sudan," said Tavadi, who moved to London more than 20 years ago.
"They are killing kids in the street using bullets. That's criminal," he said. "We would like the whole world to pay attention to what is going on in Sudan."
After the military arm of the country's transitional government detained the prime minister, thousands of people spilled onto the streets to protest. Security forces opened fire on some of them and three protesters were killed, according to the Sudan Central Doctors Committee, which also said 80 people were wounded.
The Sudanese general who seized power has since said the military will appoint a technocrat prime minister to rule alongside it within days.
Since 2019, the military has been sharing power with civilian leaders in a transitional government, after the ousting of Omar al-Bashir, the longtime authoritarian president.
"During the last two years, they made a lot of progress to restore democracy in Sudan," said Dafalla Yousif, president of a Sudanese association in London who also has many family members back home.
But the military has now pushed out the transitional government's civilian leaders, and in some cases has detained them.
"What has been achieved in the last two years is on the edge of being lost completely," said Yousif.
Both Yousif and Tavadi are encouraged the Canadian government has condemned the coup, but it wants Ottawa to step up pressure against the military. "We have to do all we can," Tavadi said. :Canada and the international world has to pressure this government to stop killing the people and release all the political detainees."