They escaped war. Now, they’re fighting for Sudan from Saskatchewan

Moubarak Bokhit Ali's memories of his home country of Sudan are punctuated by flashes of violence.

"I was born into war," Ali, now in Regina, told CBC with the help of a translator.

Born in the state of North Darfur, he says he's now grateful to be safe in Canada, thousands of kilometres away, but the violence and loss he saw are never far from his thoughts.

"Our life was a dark life," he said.

Ali was five years old when the war in Darfur broke out in 2003, a brutal campaign between rebel groups and the government that killed thousands and caused mass displacement. 

The International Criminal Court later sought charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against several Sudanese officials connected with that conflict.

Ali's family fled into neighbouring Chad as refugees. There, life was reduced to seeking the basics: food, shelter and the hope that peace might one day feel normal.

"I started to feel, why [was I] in that place?" he said. "Why didn't I have absolute freedom to live like a human being in a free country?"

For years, education was Ali's hope. He eventually returned to his home country to go to university in Khartoum. But everything changed when another civil war broke out in April 2023.

Sudan's armed forces are now fighting a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The United Nations has said it is among the world's largest ongoing humanitarian crises, marked by mass displacement, hunger and widespread atrocities. 

"We woke up, and we found that the world had turned into destruction and war," he said.

Ali was just one semester away from finishing his education when the RSF took control of Khartoum. Within days, the city was engulfed in violence, with shells shaking his neighbourhood and neighbours being killed in their homes.

"These aren't people who wanted to govern Sudan," he said. "These people wanted to destroy Sudan."

Ali's mother pushed him to give up his dream of finishing school and flee his home country. His escape was a blur of RSF checkpoints, demands for bribes and threats of violence, he says.