Family still stuck in Sudan after being approved to come to Nova Scotia in 2020

Save for a few beds, a dining table and some living room couches, a two-bedroom apartment in Halifax sits empty for the second month now.

It's meant to house a family — a mother and her two daughters originally from Eritrea — who are now living in violence-stricken Khartoum, Sudan.

Dan Campbell is with the Halifax Eritrean Refugee Sponsorship Group. He said more than two years ago, the committee submitted the paperwork for Yrgalem Weldu Belay and her two daughters, Helen Solomon Kiflesus and Furtuna Solomon Kiflesus. In November 2020, the family's sponsorship application was approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. But they've remained in Africa in the meantime.

"We're here 29 months later now. We've been patiently waiting, understanding from the outset that this might take a year or a year and a half … even with delays due to COVID. But we're going on three years now," he said.

"That patience is running thin and with the news of the events in Sudan, there's a renewed sense of urgency."

Violence in Sudan's capital broke out earlier this month after power-sharing negotiations broke down between the armed forces and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces.

Since then, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured. The Canadian government announced on Sunday it was temporarily suspending operations in the country.

Campbell said in the last few years, the family was able to secure housing and work in Khartoum after spending years in a refugee camp elsewhere in Sudan. The group has also sent money to help with any costs that come up while the family waits.

The Halifax Eritrean Refugee Sponsorship Group has agreed to support the family for two years in Nova Scotia, paying all their expenses, helping the girls enrol in school and their mother find a job.

This marks the second month the group has used funds it raised to pay for an apartment they've been holding for Belay and her daughters.

Campbell said the furnished apartment has been waiting for the family's arrival, "which we thought was imminent, and now we're told there are still some [documents] required that will prolong the wait."

Earlier this year, the group heard from immigration officials via the office of Halifax MP Andy Fillmore that a single form was outstanding before the final processing of their visas and travel to Canada could be arranged.

This weekend, the group sent a letter to federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser along with his parliamentary secretary, Marie-France Lalonde, and Fillmore imploring the government for action on the family's behalf. They want the government to finalize the family's existing permanent residence application and to commit to provide evacuation and the facilitation of visas required for travel outside of Sudan.

Most recently, Campbell said the group was able to connect with the family via text and learned that Belay and her daughters left their home to stay with friends after a nearby building was hit with gunfire. They hope to flee Sudan and head for either Egypt or Ethiopia.