A South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) officer, Lieutenant Colonel Malith Makeny, reportedly took his own life on Monday following a bitter land dispute with his younger brother in Yirol West County.
The soldier’s young brother is said to have constructed a house on a disputed plot of family land in the Dollah suburb near Mapuordit Payam, Yirol West County in Lakes State.
The police’s spokesperson in Lakes State, Maj. Elijah Mabor Makuac, told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that the senior officer hung himself in the wee hours of Monday morning.
“The deceased was an SSPDF Lieutenant Colonel identified as Malith Makeny and he committed suicide early in the morning on Monday, at around 1:30 a.m., at a place called Dollah, a residential area adjacent to Mapuordit in Yirol West County,” he said. “This man committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope to death. According to the report, there was an alleged dispute between him and his younger brother who had built a lodge on a family plot. Because he had invested in the plot, the young brother was given the land and the soldier was given another piece of land.”
“Unfortunately, the deceased decided at night to hang himself with a rope, and in the morning he was found lifeless in his compound, hanging dead,” Maj. Mabor added.
The police mouthpiece said they are still collecting more information about the incident.
He further mentioned that the body would be taken to the hospital for a postmortem and the investigation would involve interviews with family members, the examination of the scene, and the gathering of information from witnesses.
Efforts to obtain a statement from Mapuordit Hospital regarding the incident were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.