Canadian Hypocrisy Taints Anand’s Condemnation of Violence in Sudan
On Tuesday, foreign affairs minister Anita Anand condemned atrocities reportedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in western Sudan. She failed to mention a Canadian company’s involvement or Canada’s historical support for violence in the northeast African country.
The Canadian-owned Streit Group has provided armored vehicles to the RSF. Long based in southern Ontario, the Streit Group’s operations in the UAE have recently supplied the RSF, which has been armed and backed by Abu Dhabi since it fought Ansar Allah (Houthis) in Yemen. Canadian officials have directly assisted the Streit Group.
Canada has exported hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to the UAE in recent years. Additionally, Canadian diplomats and the military have promoted firms selling their wares at the Abu Dhabi-based International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX), the largest arms fair in the Middle East and North Africa.
Canada has longstanding ties to violence in Sudan, as I detail in Canada in Africa: 300 years of Aid and Exploitation. Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his government defended the US’s illegal bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical facility in August 1998, which was supposed to be producing chemical weapons. It wasn’t. Echoing US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s statement that “we have a legal right to self-defense,” foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy said, “when you come into this very murky and very dangerous area of dealing with terrorism, nations have a right to defend themselves.” The bombing left millions of Sudanese without medicines and is thought to have caused many thousands of unnecessary deaths.
One hundred years earlier, Canada backed another bout of foreign violence in Sudan. Four hundred Canadians traveled halfway across the world to beat back anti-colonial resistance in Khartoum in 1884. When Britain occupied Egypt, it took control of the Sudan, which had been under Egyptian rule for half a century. But indigenous forces increasingly challenged foreign rule. Tens of thousands of Sudanese laid siege to British/Egyptian-controlled Khartoum from March 1884 to January 1885. After cutting the 60,000-person city off from its supplies, the indigenous forces wrested control of Khartoum from the famed English General Charles Gordon.
As a result, 385 Canadian boatmen were recruited to transport soldiers and supplies to rescue Gordon and defend Britain’s position on the upper Nile. Arguing in favor of the expedition, the Globe and Mail’s predecessor claimed, “the Dark Continent is to be the next great theater upon which the dominant races of man are destined to play a conspicuous and important part.”
Despite failing to save Gordon or maintain control of Khartoum, British forces left a great many dead. In one battle, 300 to 400 Sudanese died, with 14 killed on the Egyptian/British side. In another confrontation, 1,100 Sudanese lost their lives, in contrast to the 74 British/Egyptian fighters who died.
While Britain had overwhelming superiority of arms, moving men and supplies up the river Nile was incredibly laborious. As such, the Sudanese “Mahdist” forces captured Khartoum before the British reinforcements reached the city. With Gordon dead and the expedition having various logistical difficulties, they put off attempting to recapture Khartoum.
Though defeated in the Sudan, the British were ultimately undeterred. A decade later, in Queen Victoria’s words, they “avenged” the death of Gordon and secured control of the Upper Nile. Royal Military College (RMC) graduate Lieutenant James Jay Bleecker Farley participated in the 1896 Dongola Expedition into northern Sudan. Up to 1,000 Mahdist soldiers were killed by the British-led forces (20 Egyptians died on the British side). In a speech at the Kingston, Ontario-based RMC, Farley described participating in several skirmishes. “One of our patrols, after a very exciting chase, succeeded in capturing three ‘suspicious looking (n-word),’ but they only turned out to be harmless villagers and rather badly frightened ones at that.”
Montreal-born Sir Edouard Percy Girouard made a significant contribution to the reconquest of Sudan. The RMC graduate and former junior civil engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway oversaw the construction of two hard-to-build rail lines from southern Egypt towards Khartoum. Queen Victoria’s Little Wars explains, “The problems involved in building a railway into a desert inhabited by hostile tribesmen were formidable. Railway experts and experienced soldiers alike agreed that it was an impractical idea, but [British commander Herbert] Kitchener disagreed, and Girouard made it a reality.”
The railway allowed British forces to bypass 800 km of treacherous waterways, making it much easier to move troops and supplies than a decade earlier during the time of the Canadian Voyageurs. The British reconquest of the Sudan was a slaughter. At least three Canadians participated in the final battle at Omdurman, where some 11,000 Sudanese were killed and 16,000 wounded.
Forty-eight British/Egyptian soldiers were killed, and about 400 were wounded. According to Winston Churchill and other witnesses, at least 100 injured Sudanese were murdered after the battle. Additionally, British gunboats shelled civilians in Omdurman, and the city was subsequently looted.
After successfully laying track towards Khartoum, Girouard was appointed president of the Egyptian State Railway and was given the British military’s prestigious Distinguished Service Order. Some considered Girouard’s contribution to the reconquest of the Sudan second in importance only to General Kitchener. The Montrealer later became colonial governor of both Northern Nigeria and Kenya. There’s a mountain in Banff National Park, as well as a plaque and building at RMC, named in Girouard’s honor.
The ongoing celebration of Percy Girouard is a sign of how little Canada truly cares about violence against Sudanese, and our foreign minister condemning it while allowing Canadian arms to fuel it just adds to our international reputation as hypocrites.
