Canada compares ‘deplorable’ violence in South Sudan to Rwanda

For the second time in a week, the Canadian government has condemned mass killings in South Sudan.

An attack in the northern town of Bentiu last week left at least 200 people dead and more than 400 people injured – one of the latest atrocities in more than four months of ethnically-driven violence.

The Canadian government called the killings, which happened April 15-16, “deplorable” and compared the situation to the genocide in Rwanda, which took place two decades ago this month.

“It appears that individuals associated with the Opposition used radio broadcasts to encourage targeted ethnic killings and the rape of civilians, tactics that are similar to those used 20 years ago in Rwanda, a sign that these crimes are increasingly driven by hate,” said Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He noted about 200 people, including women and children, were attacked after being falsely led to take shelter in a mosque.

READ MORE: Deadly attack on UN base in South Sudan ‘cowardly,’ says Baird

The UN decried the killings in Bentiu, which came after Neur opposition forces took control of the city, in oil-rich Unity state.

Violent clashes between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and former vice-president Riek Machar – a Neur – spread rapidly throughout the country since December.
Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the months following.

Canada’s condemnation came after the top UN aid official in South Sudan visited the scene of the attack earlier this week.

The massacre in Bentiu left “piles and piles” of bodies inside the mosque and in the streets outside, The Associated Press reported Toby Lanzer saying.

Opposition rebels have denied they were responsible for the massacre, which Lanzer said left several children and elderly people among the dead. Foreign civilians were also killed in the attack.

The UN, which has about 8,500 multinational peacekeepers in the country, said it is doing “everything it can” to protect displaced civilians, but the South Sudanese government is primarily responsible for protecting its citizens.

The number of people seeking refuge at the UN peacekeeping base in Bentiu has swelled from 4,500 at the start of the month to 22,000 people.

“We are not and cannot be in a business as usual format. The cycle of violence…must stop immediately,” said UN Peacekeeping Operations Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous.

Security at UN bases in the country has become a big concern, especially following a deadly attack in Bor one week ago.

The UN’s peacekeeping mission base in the city of Bor, approximately 200 kilometres north of capital city Juba, was attacked April 17 by a mob of young fighters who posed as peaceful protesters coming to present a petition.

They charged the gate and opened fire, killing 58 people. The base was sheltering thousands of civilians fleeing the violence.

Ladsous said the attack on the base “creates an extremely dangerous precedent and cannot happen again.”

Foreign Minister John Baird said, in a statement April 18, the attack was “cowardly” and appeared to be “ethnically based.”

With files from The Associated Press