Canada must be accountable for armoured vehicle sales to South Sudan, says activist
*Please note there is an update to this story at the bottom of this post.*
United Nations officials say government forces have been responsible for widespread killings and mass rapes since fighting broke out in South Sudan.
Freelance reporter Justin Lynch in Juba spoke to Tabisa Wuor who describes an incident witnessed first-hand of mass rape that the UN and human rights groups have documented.
Some say Canada shares some complicity in the atrocity. A recent United Nations report found that a Canadian-owned company — the Streit Group — sold dozens of armoured vehicles to South Sudan back in 2014 and those vehicles were later found to be operating in heavy combat zones in the country.
Edmund Yakani, a prominent South Sudanese activist and director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organizations tells The Current's host Connie Walker that activists are aware of the Canadian company engaging with authorities "in terms of arms."
Yakani says the engagement "supporting the military strength is claiming the lives of innocent civilians. "A Canadian-owned company is fuelling the violence more ... I think the company has to be held accountable."
In looking at the reports of mass rape that were described by the UN, Yakani has spoken to over 100 women rape victims and says it's important to speak out to "give the accurate version of what is going on on the ground."
"Many women they are telling me about traumatizing moments where soldiers come into their houses and they rape them," Yakani tells Walker.
"There are really rampant cases of rape. Between 15 to 20 per cent of the rape cases there are those incidents where they ran to the PoC (UN Protection of Civilians site), they have nothing to eat ... no source of food like charcoal or firewood."
"We are not given food by the UN. That's why there were so many rape cases because women tried to get out there and get food for their children," Gach tells reporter Lynch in a camp in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
The Current spoke with South Sudan's ambassador to Washington, D.C., Garang Diing Akuong, to address the UN's preliminary investigations that found that South Sudan's "government security forces carried out killings and rapes, and looted and destroyed properties."
"The report is not accurate. We believe maybe some excesses happened during the fight but that is not the practice or the norm of the government of South Sudan to allow the soldiers to rape or loot," says Akuong.
"We are investigating, the government has apprehended some soldiers and they will be accountable for whatever they did."
UPDATE: After this story went to air, The Current received a statement from the Streit Group that reads in part:
"A number of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were purchased from Streit Group in the UAE by legitimate government agencies in South Sudan - the National Security Service, Internal Security Bureau and Office of the Director General - during a period up to and including August 2014. We closely monitor the UN sanctions list and none of these agencies appeared on it at the time, or indeed to this day.
The vehicles supplied were all APCs. They were designed and built to protect people - they are not tactical military vehicles and none of our vehicles are ever shipped with any form of weaponry.
It is the responsibility of the purchaser to inform their own government agencies if they wish to modify or sell vehicles. We cannot influence this process, but unapproved modifications made - including addition of weaponry - will invalidate the warranty."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Kristin Nelson and Karin Marley.