Government orders security forces to crackdown on land grabbers

JUBA – The Governor of South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State, Emmanuel Adil Anthony, has directed security organs to intensify crackdown on land grabbers

The governor issued this directive while presiding over a high level security meeting at the state house in Juba on Friday.

There have been issues related to land grabbing and unlawful allotment in the capital Juba and other areas around Central Equatoria State.

In February, forty-five suspected land grabbers were arrested for illegally demarcating land in the areas of Mangalla County in Central Equatoria State.

Local chiefs on several occasions petitioned the governor to stop the ongoing illegal acquisition of land in their areas.

On 8 December 2020, the Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance (FODAG), one of the civil society groups championing access to justice in South Sudan 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 officers in Juba.

Speaking to reporters after a state security meeting in Juba this afternoon, Moro Issac  Jenesio, Central Equatoria  State Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement said governor Adil has  directed the police to apprehend those found illegally demarcating lands with immediate effect.

“There were also issues of land grabbing raised and it was of a great concern and the meeting resolved that all activists of land grabbing and those involved in these activities must be apprehended and prosecuted in accordance with law,” Issac told reporters.