The North American country Canada has joined the group of nations sanctioning top South Sudanese generals involved in the country’s civil war. Canada accuses two South Sudanese generals of committing ‘atrocities.’
European nations and the United States had already imposed sanctions on the SPLA-IO ‘military governor’ of Unity State, loyal to Riek Machar, and the SPLA-Juba ‘presidential guard’ commander in Juba, loyal to Salva Kiir.
As of 30 October, Canada imposed targeted sanctions against these two individuals, SPLA-Juba commander Marial Chanuong and SPLA-IO commander Peter Gadet, according to a statement by the Canadian Foreign Ministry.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explained, “The targeting of civilians based on ethnicity is deeply concerning, and the individuals who perpetrate such atrocities should be held to account. That is why Canada is announcing targeted sanctions against individuals who have been directly or indirectly facilitating and supporting the ongoing hostilities on both sides of the conflict.”
“We are extremely disturbed by UN reports describing gross violations of human rights by both parties to the conflict on a massive scale, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Baird.
Besides Canada, the United States has been threatening to impose more sanctions. Nearly a month ago the Special Envoy Donald Booth said “the time has come” for sanctions against more individuals, but no action followed.
Western diplomats have said they expect financial sanctions will impact leaders of the warring SPLA-IO and SPLA-Juba factions. As pointed out by the Financial Times in July, many of South Sudan’s leaders “rely on considerable real estate and banking assets outside their own country, in east Africa, the Middle East and Europe.”
File photo: Foreign Minister John Baird
Related:
US adds names to South Sudan sanctions list (18 Sept.)
Sanctions list: Marial Chanuong, Peter Gadet, Santino Deng (11 July)