No easy escape options for Alberta man stuck with hundreds more Canadians in Sudan

Tim Sanborn, from Cochrane, Alta., is one of hundreds of Canadians who are currently trapped in Sudan, where the war between the two top generals of the country has raged for nearly a week, making flight out of the country impossible.

At a hotel in Khartoum, the capital, Sanborn said he was on high alert.

“A bullet went through the glass in the front foyer this morning,” he told the CBC on Thursday. “Nobody got hit, but, you know, but it just reminds you where it is.”

According to the World Health Organization, the death toll from the conflict has risen to 330, with around 3,200 people injured.

Sandborn, a father of two, traveled to Africa’s third-largest country for his employer, which manufactures agricultural machinery and exports it worldwide.

When the conflict began on Saturday, he was in a hotel near the city’s international airport, which has been the target of heavy attacks. Satellite images show a damaged plane on the tarmac.

“We had this massive artillery and bombardment every morning, starting at dawn every day,” Sanborn said. “Maybe two to three hours every morning, it’s unbearable, just constant, heavy bombardment, flying shrapnel, sporadic gunfire close to the hotel.”

On Wednesday morning, the company his employer worked for took him to another hotel in Khartoum that housed another Canadian. Sanborn said the hotel previously ran out of supplies, such as water and diesel to run generators.

While Sanborn said he feels safer among his fellow Canadians, he is “not satisfied” with what he is hearing from Ottawa.

Until then, the government advised Canadians in the country to seek shelter. Sanborn said people from other countries seem to understand and connect better with their Sudanese counterparts.

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told CBC News on Thursday that evacuating citizens and diplomatic staff from Khartoum is not an option now because of security risks and fighting near the airport.

“The situation is untenable now,” he said. “We are constantly evaluating the situation.”

WATCH | The Minister of Foreign Affairs discussed the situation in Sudan

Foreign Minister says evacuation from Sudan is ‘impossible’ now

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said her office was continuing to monitor the situation on the ground but evacuations were not possible at the moment as the airport was closed and roads were unsafe.

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) says about 1,500 Canadians have notified the government that they are in Sudan, adding that the number is lower than the actual number.

In a statement, GAC said the embassy in Sudan is currently closed to the public and is looking at all options to support staff on the ground.

Conservative MP Blake Richards, who represents the Cochrane area, said he was concerned about Sanborn’s situation.

Sanborn has personal evacuation insurance through his employer. He said there was talk of escaping by land with a private company. However, it is now not a preferred option for escape.

“The most desirable option is to fly on a government-flagged aircraft which is a humanitarian effort, not a clandestine night movement,” he said.

The fighting in Sudan is a power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army commander, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Force.

The two generals are former allies who orchestrated a military coup in 2021 that disrupted the country’s transition to democracy. According to The New York Times, the two were close to an agreement to diffuse the conflict just days before the war erupted.

While ceasefire efforts have so far failed, there is hope that the Eid al-Fitr holiday will bring an end to the bloodshed.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the fighters for a three-day ceasefire to coincide with the holiday starting Friday.

For Sanborn, everything will depend on how both sides behave after the announcement of the holiday truce. He said he would be hesitant to take a land route out of the country, as he was unsure how troops could operate outside the capital.

“I’m not too desperate yet,” he said.

The New York Times reported that the Pentagon is moving more troops to the nearby country of Djibouti in preparation for the evacuation of US embassy staff. However, US officials said it would be difficult to evacuate embassy staff, as well as the 19,000 American citizens believed to be in Sudan.