The sight of Canadian-manufactured PGW Timberwolf sniper rifles in the hands of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has sparked urgent questions about how Ottawa’s exported arms are being used in one of Africa’s deadliest ongoing conflicts.
“These weapons weren’t supposed to end up there,” explains Youssef Ibrahim, a Sudanese-Canadian activist who fled Khartoum last year after fighting erupted. “But now they’re being used to terrorize civilians in my hometown.”
The 18-month conflict between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary RSF has created what the UN calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Over 9 million people have been displaced and famine conditions are spreading across multiple regions. Amid this devastation, Canadian weapons have appeared in footage posted by RSF fighters.
Foreign Affairs Minister MĂ©lanie Joly acknowledged the government’s concern last week during a House of Commons committee meeting. “We’re investigating all allegations of Canadian weapons being diverted to Sudan,” she stated, while declining to provide specific details about ongoing investigations.
According to data from Global Affairs Canada, Canadian companies sold approximately $13.6 million in military goods to the United Arab Emirates between 2018 and 2022. Security analysts believe these weapons were later diverted to the RSF through the UAE, which has reportedly backed the paramilitary group despite international embargoes.
The UN Panel of Experts on Sudan documented the presence of Canadian-made weapons in a recent report, describing “sophisticated sniper systems that have enhanced RSF capabilities” in urban combat zones. This revelation has intensified calls from humanitarian organizations for Canada to strengthen its arms export controls.
“The diversion of Canadian weapons to conflict zones represents a critical failure in our export control system,” says Elise Luyton of the Canadian Coalition on Arms Control. “These weapons are now contributing to atrocities, despite our legal obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty.”
Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 following tensions between military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberate attacks on civilians, systemic sexual violence, and blocking humanitarian aid.
In the western Darfur region, where some of the worst violence has occurred, local doctors report treating wounds consistent with high-caliber sniper fire. “The precision of these weapons makes them particularly deadly in civilian areas,” explains Dr. Amina Bashir from Doctors Without Borders, who recently returned from a medical mission in El Fasher.
The Canadian government faces mounting pressure from a coalition of 28 civil society organizations demanding immediate suspension of military exports to countries potentially diverting weapons to Sudan. The coalition’s statement points to “substantial risk that Canadian weapons are facilitating grave human rights violations” in direct contravention of the Arms Trade Treaty, which Canada ratified in 2019.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong has called the situation “another example of this government’s failure to enforce its own rules,” referencing previous controversies involving Canadian military exports to Saudi Arabia used in Yemen’s civil war.
For Sudanese communities in Canada, these revelations feel deeply personal. “We fled violence only to learn our new home is inadvertently fueling the same conflict that displaced us,” says Nour Hassan, who coordinates the Sudanese Canadian Emergency Response Coalition in Toronto.
International arms monitoring group Conflict Armament Research documented serial numbers on captured weapons that traced back to a 2020 shipment originally authorized for UAE special forces. “This pattern of diversion isn’t new,” notes their senior researcher Willem Kruger. “What’s needed is proactive monitoring of where these weapons actually end up.”
As the humanitarian situation in Sudan deteriorates further, with the UN warning that over 25 million people now face acute food insecurity, the Canadian government faces difficult questions about its role in the weapons supply chain feeding this devastating conflict.
“The tragedy is that we have laws meant to prevent exactly this scenario,” says Ibrahim Mohammed of the Sudanese Human Rights Network. “Now we need accountability and immediate action to stop more Canadian weapons from reaching Sudan’s battlefields.”
