Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A senior South Sudan police officer has admitted that members of the organized forces are involved in land grabbing crimes in the capital Juba and blamed improper housing for the phenomenon.
Speaking during a briefing by newly appointed minister of interior Angelina Teny at the police headquarters in Buluk on Tuesday, deputy Inspector General of Police Gen. Jal Thomas Kuma said most senior officers who have to stay in Juba for their work resorts to land grabbing due to lack of housing.
“Another challenge is accommodation. You see all these generals, to stay in Juba is very difficult and that is why you find them in [remote areas] with no security. So, the issue of accommodation for generals is very important, this would also reduce the issue of land grabbing,” he added.
“Like this thing of land grabbing happening in Juba most of it is from us weather the soldiers, police, national security or any other it’s because they need to have residences to stay in, so they get where to stay in because the government hasn’t given them place to stay in, but if this case is settled it can help issues in the Country,” he added.
In august, the Commissioner of Juba City County Charles Joseph Wani accused “senior government officials” of being part of what he described as illegal schemes to acquire land from imposters in Bilinyang Boma of Mangala Payam.
His remarks came after Bilinyang Chief Pio Tombe accused unknown land grabbers of interfering with his administration. He said those unknown land grabbers had claimed that the national government in Juba claimed to have directed them to allocate land to displaced people.
“There are a lot of criminals these days and as a matter of fact, those criminals, most of them, you will find them as senior officers in government,” Wani told journalists in Juba in August.
The national police spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Justin Bula had said that at least six people were killed and one other wounded after security forces clashed with armed civilians over a land dispute in Kworijik Boma of Juba County.
“The police managed to arrest 53 suspects. We suspect that they are land grabbers,” Daniel stated at the time.
In May, around 50 land grabbers were arrested in Gondokoro by the Central Equatoria State authorities according to local news outlet Juba Echo.
The government has previously tried to address the issue of land grabbing but failed to bring the issue to an end. President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2021 had constituted a 12-member committee to investigate the rampant land grabbing issue around Juba City.
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