Fighting between rival military and paramilitary forces in Sudan has for days left civilians trapped in their homes as the violent power struggle between the two sides continues to unfold.
Hundreds of Canadians and permanent residents of Canada are inside the country’s borders and want help getting out, putting pressure on Ottawa to make that happen.
As of Wednesday, Canada plans to deploy roughly 200 troops to help co-ordinate the evacuation of civilians from the country, according to Defence Minister Anita Anand. The federal government has already helped some Canadians leave.
The situation in Sudan is just the latest occasion in which Canada’s government has found itself having to figure out how to get large numbers of people out of danger far from Canada’s own borders.
2021: The fall of the Afghan government
When the United States left Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban quickly swept to power.
That left many people in Afghanistan scrambling to flee the resulting chaos and the regime change in Kabul.
The emergency situation erupted shortly after the start of a federal election campaign in Canada. That didn’t diminish the pressure on the government to get a lot of people out.
A series of rescue flights followed.
The Canadian government said it helped get more than 3,700 people exit the country before ending its airlift effort later that month — acknowledging that some citizens, permanent residents and their families, as well as people hoping to seek refuge in Canada, remained in Afghanistan.
Ottawa faced sharp criticism for not being able to get more people out.
Ottawa says it has settled more than 30,000 Afghans since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Its stated goal is to bring in at least 40,000 Afghans.
2020: Early glimpse of COVID challenges
Just over three years ago, some Canadians were getting an early glimpse of the pandemic that would upend life around the globe — specifically those who were in a part of China where a strict lockdown had been imposed.
The federal government charted a flight to bring home scores of stranded Canadians and permanent residents from China in February 2020. When those people landed back home, they went into quarantine for two weeks.
Many more repatriation flights would follow, in various parts of the world, in the months to come.
Days after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March of 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised Canadians abroad it was “time to come home.”
Canada would help fly home more than 60,000 people between February and July of 2020, according to government data.
2011: Exiting Egypt
In late January 2011, there were hundreds of people with ties to Canada who wanted to leave Egypt — and quickly — amid unrest and ongoing anti-government protests.
Canada’s federal government was facing calls to get people out. It chartered a series of flights out of Cairo.
Lawrence Cannon, who was then Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said Ottawa had been “extremely forceful” in its efforts to get people out and in calling for Egypt to bring forward a “transition to democratic reform.”
The protests would last 18 days and prompt Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power.
2006: Evacuation effort in Lebanon
In July 2006, a war involving Israel and Hezbollah broke out, prompting a lot of people in Lebanon to want to flee the danger.
That included many Canadians — and Ottawa would ultimately rescue nearly 15,000 people.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled overseas and flew back with a group of people fleeing the conflict.
The war lasted 34 days and ended the following month.
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