Juba County Commissioner Charles Joesph Wani (from right) meets Gen. Malual Majok Assistant CDF for Administration, Personnel and Finance. | Photo: Courtesy.

The commissioner of Juba County said he has agreed with the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces headquarters to jointly tackle land grabbers in the area.

Commissioner Charles Joseph Wani said the resolution was reached following his meeting with the leadership of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces in Bilpam on Wednesday.

According to him, the two institutions agreed to work as partners “for the good of the people of South Sudan.”

He said the two institutions have considered the directives of President Kiir to address the rampant land-grabbing and looting of people’s property in the county.

“We together with SSPDF, are working as one partner and also working for the good of the people of South Sudan, in many cases, if it’s the case of the issue of land,” Wani said at the SSPDF headquarters in Bilpam.

“If it’s issue cattle, if it’s the issue of insecurity within the county or the state, we are going to assure our citizens that nothing can come to their life because we are now tapping our hands together and seriously working for the good of the nation.”

Juba County of Central Equatoria State has witnessed unprecedented cases of land grabbing – with many grabbers going unpunished in recent months.

In some of the areas, locals have been forced out of their areas of origin.

Right groups said in 2021 that land-grabbing is a security threat mostly committed by senior army and national security generals in South Sudan.

Early this year, the national government set up a committee to investigate such cases across the Central Equatoria State.

But so far, the outcome of the investigations has not been made public.