Families living in graveyards ask for government support.

A group of families has found shelter in the cemetery where they live comfortably with the dead. The residents say they are living in the cemetery because it is peaceful, others say they are in search of an education in Juba , South Sudan. The cemetery supports up to  4000 families. They have occupied the Hai Malakal cemetery for more than 10 years. Others say that they have occupied the cemetery due to a lack of access to land in Juba. The Hai Malakal cemetery which is fenced by a high wall is opposite pyramid hotel and Bedwin Restaurant. Inside, there are graves that have been cemented and shacks made of tarpaulin and sisal next to them. The people inside do not look happy.

The communities occupying the cemetery include Nomor yang state, Toriit, Zande, Bari, and Bor. They call themselves the 10 states because according to them they are united with the dead and alive.

26-year-old, John Lowani from Terekeka state is a senior four student at British High School in Juba. He was born in the cemetery. His father was a soldier and when he died, his mother remained in the cemetery. He says that they are there because there is no land for them to settle in Juba. 

John Lowani says in his tribe (Mundari), if the person passes away,  he/she is buried in the middle of the house and they continue to live with them. He says that they have also settled there because in his rural home village is far and a cemetery is an empty place. Besides that he says, he cannot own land in Juba because it is not affordable.

The residents say they cannot go back to their states because it is not stable and there are no schools. Lowani says that they were asked to relocate by the former mayor of Juba Town Lieutenant General Samir khamis . The graveyard has not had any burials for up to four years now.

“This mayor, the former mayor, is the one who said that he does not want anybody living here, he asked how many are you and I told him we are four thousand and the mayor replied by saying there is no place. If you are four thousand no place. His answer was no place. He said you have a stay why aren’t you going back to your state and I told him, our response is education, we have a lot of children, he says.”

43-year-old, Chief Wani Kulang has been living with his wife and 8 children in Hai-Malakal cemetery since the referendum. He says he does not own any land because his land was grabbed by the government. Kulang says his children have grown up in the cemetery and his daughter who was born  at the cemetery has joined university. 

Kulang says, "The government grabbed our land and chased us here. Life is hard here, we only get food when old women go to market places to sort grains.There is no water we drink the dirty rainwater. The children we have at this cemetery will be future leaders, so where do we go we are not foreigners” It is the kind of situation you might find yourself in if, like Kulang, you are poor, you have no job, and live in one of the world’s fragile country.”

Juan a widow and a mother of three she says that the community has kept to themselves and they keep the cemetery clean. Juan says, “We keep the cemetery clean … The community has kept to itself “Most people here don’t have income, but we try and find odd jobs to make ends meet. We go to Konyo Konyo Market to sort grains and wash dishes in hotels.”

Living in a public the cemetery is free, however, there are no basic services such as sanitation, electricity and clean water and their shelter can be easily destroyed by harsh weather climate.

Reech Malual, a practicing lawyer and Chairperson for the Coalition of Public Interest, says the land was allocated for burial purposes and not for people to settle in it.

According to the South Sudan constitution, land act of 2009, the land management is under the government but the ownership is for the community. He says residents in Juba and other areas in the country find it very difficult to find piece of land to call home.

He says, "It’s very hard. And this is why you have seen there is a lot of land grabbing and that is why you have seen there are people only settling in the graveyard because that is the only place that they can get, if government can have a mercy and be able to allot land freely to the people of South Sudan so that they can find a place to live in then I believe.

Malual is appealing to the government to allot free plots of land to South Sudanese who need a place to live.

The acting Deputy Mayor of Physical Infrastructure and Development in Juba City Council, Thiik Thiik Mayar Diit  says on July 30th  during the 2005 referendum , The Governor, Augustino Jadalla announced that people who have lost their parents and land due to war would be given land.

The Deputy Mayor says if they followed the right procedures and asked the government of Jubek State for land they would have been allocated legal land . He says the land that they are currently occupying is for the government."That  land  does not belong to them, so those people who are living there they were not living there they should not lie, that is  a cemetery for the people to be buried they are not supposed to live there".

Thiik Thiik Mayar Dit says that the government will decide when to call people who have relatives in the cemetery to collect the bones so that the government can use the land.

The Jubek State Minister for Physical Infrastructure , Francis Swaka, says the government plans to redevelop the land where the cemetery sits so everyone living there illegally should vacate the area.

 “ I will just ask anybody here in Juba who has a family there to quietly to talk to them ,Let them move out and you know look for themselves a place because they cannot continue living there because you know they are living there, they are producing kids and these kids, who knows maybe one day they will be a president, will be an engineer.  We need to value them. So I am just requesting our citizens here if you have a relative there please try to talk to them.”

The residents at the cemeteries say that they will move if the government provides land for them. Currently, majority of cemeteries in Juba are occupied with people only a few are used to bury people. 

Most residents bury their loved ones in their homes.

This article was written by Diing Magot and audio on the same story has been published in VOA news.