Army commanders intimidating judiciary officials, grabbing lands in Juba – report

JUBA – The Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance (FODAG), one of the civil society groups championing access to justice in South Sudan, on Tuesday released a report implicating senior military commanders in a land-grabbing scandal.

The 26-page report dubbed as “Land, Reparation and Transitional Justice in South Sudan,” compiled between July and September 2020, accused some senior military commanders of land grabbing and intimidating judiciary official in country.

Speaking during the release of the report, Jame David Kolok, Executive Director for FODAG revealed that land related issues escalated after the conflict of 2013, and 2016 which displaced thousands of people.

“Some of these violations of the land are attributed to specific time, for example, it escalated after 2013 and 2016. This is because the conflict resulted into displacement of citizens that have gone to the IDPs camps or become refugees. The land grabbers took advantage of their absent to grabbed their lands,” Kolok said.

The report highlighted most of land grabbing in areas of Yei predominately happened shortly after the liberation of Yei in 1997.

The Finding in Yei indicated that as soon as Yei was captured, a lot of the commanders took all the empty lands that belongs to the people that departed the location.

“The same happened in Nimule, the land related issues are mainly attributed to migrating pastorals that have occurred pieces of lands and destroyed people’ crows,” said the report.

The study also has accused the local chiefs of selling lands to senior military and powerful government officials.

South Sudan’s 2009 Land Act says that all land in the country belongs to the people, and its usage is regulated by the national government.