The Islamic council in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State on Monday revealed that they have succeeded in reclaiming their assets in the border town of Nimule in Magwi County after several difficulties.
Last month, the Council formed a committee headed by Sheikh Hassen Ismail Loromo to recover all the assets belonging to Muslims in Torit, Nimule, and Kapoeta with the help of the government
On 28 August, the committee began work to recover assets in and around the main mosque in Nimule Town on a piece of land measuring 300 by 300 meters which had been built on by several business concerns including telecom companies Zain, MTN, and Sudani, and a fuel station and the Patnet building.
Over the years, the Muslim Community has been repeatedly appealing to the government to facilitate the return of their properties.
Sheikh Juma Laku Samuel, the secretary for strategic planning at the Islamic Council in Eastern Equatoria State, said that despite repossessing their Awkaf which is an Arabic word meaning assets that are donated, bequeathed, or purchased for being held in perpetual trust for general or specific charitable causes that are socially beneficial. He said the land still has disputes with the people currently occupying it.
“As a committee, we worked tirelessly and did everything possible to reclaim the assets be it by law or Islam, and in the end, we went for three days and benefited from the documents that we found in Nimule. I want to tell Muslims in the state that the committee has reclaimed a lot of things for the future development of Muslims in the state. We have to manage these assets properly,” he said. “We faced challenges but those people (squatters) did not have awareness about the Islamic Council and we educated them until they were able to know and that is why they gave us documents including bank statements.”
Sheikh Laku also accused some Muslims in Torit Town of hiding documents of the assets belonging to the Islamic Community for their gain.
“There are four plots I have doubt belong to the Islamic Council but when we went there, we found buildings on them, and some unknown person is illegally collecting rent and benefiting from them,” he charged. “We have shops in front of the mosque but something is not clear there and we shall look for the relevant documents. Also, we shall ask why we have some shops that are rented at USD 100 and others at SSP 50,000, which is not fair.”
The cleric also denied allegations that USD 17,000 belonging to the Muslim Community has been squandered by the current administration, saying such amounts have not existed since they took over management.
For his part, Sheikh Loromo confirmed they faced several challenges that left them with no option but to resort to the law.
“In Nimule, we found many challenges, we even found the Mosque closed and we had to go to the public prosecutor and it was difficult to obtain the papers but we managed after about three weeks to get the documents,” he said. “We do not have any problem in Nimule anymore and we removed the old committee there and formed a new one and we are now communicating with the new people daily about progress. We selected those in the county and those in the Mosque and work is going on very well.”