Land Tenure Conflicts in South Sudan: Reflections on Legal Challenges

Land tenure, when secure, is fundamental to the well-being and stability of a people and a country. In many African countries, where land tenure is less secure, many states and people have waged wars against real or perceived occupation or infringement of their land rights. This research, whose main objectives are to examine the many legal challenges to land tenure in South Sudan, was conducted using primary methods of data collection including interviews, group discussions with land stakeholders, and documentary reports.

The focus of the research is on assessing the impacts of the absence of secure land tenure in South Sudan and the role played by government agencies, if any, in resolving any emerging conflicts. The paper analyzes four main types of land related conflicts: conflicts over ownership of plots allotted on applications by local governments to individuals or institutions for purposes of mainly housing constructions; conflicts over land between host communities and returnees or IDPs; conflicts over grazing land mainly between nomads and settled agricultural communities, and internal land boundary conflicts between adjacent communities. There is no doubt. that these conflicts have had an influence on land security or land tenure in South Sudan. The research attributes much of these conflicts to factors such as misunderstanding, if not misinterpretation of the concept and policy of land ownership, existing weak land tenure systems, weak registration authority, and the inability to coordinate effectively between government institutions and customary institutions. The research further argues that, key to these factors, are the haphazard nature of law enforcement and lack of respect for the rule of law in the country.

These conflicts have been major contributory factors to increased poverty among the people characterized by loss of lives and property and the violation of the individual’s land rights. The research concludes by arguing that, the inadequate legal framework for managing land tenure conflicts, the abuse of legal procedures and the attendant delay in justice delivery can be mitigated by conducting training at all levels, the translation of land laws into local languages and the establishment of specialized land courts to expedite the backlog of land cases currently causing bottlenecks in the country at large, because land is life.