South Sudan gov’t urged to intervene in Mangala payam amid land grabbing

Local chiefs from Mangala Payam of Central Equatorial state have petitioned the national ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management over suspected land grabbers who are claiming to resettle returnees on their land.

Christopher Philip, the chief of Bilnyang Boma on Monday told The Juba Echo, that some people claiming to have government’s ear are busy demarcating for themselves land purportedly to resettle people who have been displaced by ongoing conflict in neighboring Sudan.

“We condemn the ongoing land grabbing in Bilnyang, the land grabbing started from Juba two, and it has now reached Nyongi near Bilnyang. We do not know those behind the land grabbing but they say they are accommodating internally displaced persons from Khartoum,” Philip said.

“We are informed that South Sudanese returning from Khartoum are going to their areas of origin and foreigners seeking refuge are in Gorom, we are not informed by the state authorities about these people who are registering people and continuing with demarcation of the our land,” he added.

Pio Tombe, the head chief of Mangala Payam, said several bonafide residents have been displaced from their land by these people claiming to resettle returnees.

He said they have not been consulted by the national and state authorities about the ongoing activities on their land.

 “We as leaders from 8 bomas under Mangala payam are disturbed by land grabbing, as of early  August 2023 returnees from Khartoum are taking plots in Bilnyang, they are land grabbers they just enter without due procedures,” Tombe said.

“Mangala in general is disturbed, land grabbing is happening everywhere in Mangala from the border with Rejaf toward Mangala and to Gemeza. We have the Governor and we have the commissioner who can consult with particular community here,” he disclosed.

South Sudan now hosts more than 190,000 returnees, including refugees who fled fighting in Sudan across the 12 border crossing points, according to the United Nations.

The fighting, which erupted in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on April 15 and soon spread to different parts of the country, is being fought between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Both sides have accused each other of initiating the conflict.