“My mother went one way, my father another,” says Habiba.* “I arrived here alone.” 

She is 13. She was walking home from market in El Fasher, Sudan, when shelling and gunfire threw her to the ground. 
She found her younger brother in the chaos and they fled on foot. Then another airstrike hit, and he was killed.  

“I had to leave him,” Habiba says. “It was too much.” 

Habiba fled the atrocities of El Fasher alone, barefoot, for six days. She did not escape unscathed. She endured humanity at its worst. 

Habiba is among thousands of children to arrive unaccompanied at the Shearyia El Nakheel camp in North Darfur. No family, no documents, no possessions, no food. 

She was eventually united with her aunt and grandmother. She still doesn’t know about her parents.  

“They have opened up a new school here, but I don’t have money to buy school stuff,” she says. “Sometimes I don’t even have money to buy soap.” 

She’s heard that people are returning to El Fasher now, but she can’t see going back. There’s no one there for her.  

"It was beautiful," she says, remembering life before the war. "I was reading and going to school with my siblings."  

The suffering in Sudan is staggering. Since 2023, over 12 million people have been displaced, including more than 4 million children. 

Investigation by The Globe and Mail found equipment made by Canadian companies is fueling this violence. Loopholes in Canada’s export controls allow weapons and parts to reach conflict zones like Sudan.  At the same time, food, medicine and aid are being blocked. This is deliberate, and children are suffering the most. 

We need to act now: 

• Close arms export loopholes to prevent Canadian-made parts from fueling violence in places like Sudan.
• Mobilize world leaders to protect children’s right to life-saving help and confront the obstruction of aid. 

Sign the petition. Close the loopholes. Open access. Protect Sudan’s children.
 
*Habiba’s name has been changed for child protection reasons.