The governor of Lakes State has ordered the mayor of Rumbek Municipal Council to register the people who were affected by last month’s demolition exercise in the Akuac residential area in Rumbek town.
In March, the state government undertook an exercise to demolish illegal houses in the Akuac suburb of Rumbek town where the historic Rumbek Senior Secondary School is located.
The Lakes State education minister, Nelson Makoi Makur, told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that Governor Rin Tueny Mabor directed the municipal council to register those affected during the demolition exercise in the environs of Rumbek Senior Secondary School and have documents.
“It is the government’s policy that those who were affected are citizens of Lakes State and they are citizens of South Sudan and our government is taking care of them,” he said. “Our governor has directed the mayor of Rumbek town and he is going on now taking the names of those who were affected during the demolition exercise and that list will be shared with the vice president for service cluster when he comes here.”
“The list of those affected people will be given to the minister of lands, housing, and public utilities so that we can relocate them,” Makoi added.
For his part, Rumbek Mayor Peter Maliap Chieny confirmed the registration of people those whose houses were demolished is ongoing.
“The list of people who have been affected will be summited to the state authorities who will decide what to do,” he said. “The state authorities told me that the registration for the affected has to be carried out first.”
Meanwhile, civil society activist Daniel Laat Kon has urged the state government to urgently compensate the affected people after registering them.
“Does the government have the capacity to compensate them for their valued houses even after they have been registered?” he asked. “The only affected people who are being registered by the committee formed by the state are those with legal documents.”
Laat appealed to humanitarian organizations operating in Lakes State to help assist, especially basic shelter, those whose houses were demolished around Rumbek Senior Secondary School.