Authorities in South Sudan’s Jonglei State have started screening all investors operating in the state.
The state investment commission chairperson, Achiek John Tiopic told Radio Tamazuj Saturday that government embarked on the statewide exercise following a rise in disputes over investment land.
He said the exercise, which started on Monday, will run for a month.
“Investors were leased lands since 2007. But for all those years, most of them left their lands empty. Locals settled on the lands, so this created conflict between the investors, government and local residents. We are carrying out the screening to stop all these problems,” said Achiek.
The official further revealed that there are currently about 1,000 registered investors not engaged in any activities within the state.
“Unemployment is very high and government is not having a lot of income because there are no investments in the state, yet land has been given out to over 1,000 investors for investments,” said Achiek.
He warned that investors who are not screened will lose their land.
In January, Achiek accused some local residents of Jonglei State of allegedly grabbing land allocated for investments in the town of Bor since 2008.