The Ministry of Information and Communication in Abyei Administrative Area over the weekend launched a two-day program to disseminate the South Sudan Land Act 2009 to the local population.
According to the land law, land belongs to communities and will be regulated by the government; however, officials say this has been misconstrued and has led to misunderstandings and communal disputes over land across South Sudan.
Abyei Information Minister Yuohna Akol told Radio Tamazuj on Thursday that the dissemination exercise took place last Friday and Saturday and aimed to enlighten communities about some provisions of the land law ahead of town planning.
“32 stakeholders, including chiefs, youth, women, and officials, attended this significant two-day awareness on the Land Act and the upcoming commemoration of the Abyei referendum results because fellow South Sudanese feel like we have forgotten them about the status of Abyei,” he said. “The clause in the Land Act that states that land belongs to the community is misunderstood by our people; that is why the ministry saw it important to enlighten people about it.”
“Some people got it wrong and believe that they can stay on land without allowing the government to plan it for them, and we will roll the program out to all counties,” Minister Akol added.
For his part, Abyei Paramount Chief Bulabek Deng Kuol said the dissemination of the Land Act is important, and he lauded the information ministry for educating the citizens about the meaning of “land belongs to the community.”
“Any government needs to provide services like roads, hospitals, and schools to its people, and this must be made possible through demarcation of land, but people misunderstood it,” he stated. “Also, it will be easier during the dry season to allow land surveying because people have understood the real meaning of the Land Act, so I appreciate the information ministry because the dissemination of the Land Act was not done at the grassroots levels since 2009.”
Meanwhile, Chol Lual, the youth leader in Abyei, said that they will spread the message.
“Land is an important aspect of life, and people cannot stay for years without building houses confidently. So, understanding the Land Act is important, and we now know that land belongs to the community but must be regulated by the government. Our role as youth is to explain it to our parents because we learned a lot during the dissemination exercise, including land inheritance and the rights of widows to own land.”