South Sudan update

""It is not known when the matter will be resolved. A baseline report on land deals in South Sudan, published by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) in March 2011, found that nine percent of the country has been sought or acquired by private interests. The report suggests that the government consider a temporary ban on large-scale land acquisition projects until institutions are better established. In response to the report, Robert Ladu Loki, head of the South Sudan Land Commission, said the investors’ contracts will be investigated.19 Regardless of the kind of development that occurs, there is no doubt that the effects on local communities will be considerable, and that US investors are intimately involved.  As the NPA report points out, NTD’s lease of an area three times the size of Lainya County (whose population is 89,315) suggests that speculation is involved; and even if the company were to invest in a manner that does not require resettlement of local communities, such extensive development would still significantly affect patterns of land access and use for tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people.20"" (thanks Dale)