• Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world. In the 1990s, when other African countries were privatizing key industries in order to attract foreign investment and become eligible for international loans, a civil war was raging in Sierra Leone that prevented the country from taking part in the controversial structural adjustment programs initiated by the World Bank and the Inter-national Monetary Fund.

Oknha Sorng Thorn, the owner of 5,000ha which covers a fourth of Koas Krala district in Battambang province, was taken in for questioning by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Saturday in regards to corruption allegations.

In a move that civil society organisation Adhoc does not believe to be related to Thorn’s case, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree ending Mao Sochan’s tenure as Koas Krala district governor.

Urban land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut released a research document on Monday showing a slowdown in land evictions in the capital, but said there was little evidence the process was improving or following human rights standards.

FORMER farm workers are now the owners of the land where they used to work in Bago City.

This, after they received their certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Negros Occidental II.

The recipients are 27 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), who now own the 18.0580-hectare landholding formerly owned by Carmelino Mamar.

Situated at Barangay Bacong, it was covered through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) specifically under compulsory acquisition.

The Lands Department is looking at providing affordable housing for public servants as well as taxpayers.

Minister John Rosso made their intention known during a recent press brieng in Port Moresby.

Creating aordable housing in PNG’s urban centres is a complicated and daunting task considering the large number of squatters on State land, land ownership issues, the connection of utilities and reticulation on the land itself.

This special bulletin wants to pay tribute to the forest communities and peasant families around the world who despite all odds and difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic – including the movement restrictions imposed by governments and the corporate and elite profit-seeking abuses -, have still managed to practice solidarity:

A series of land complaints were filed with the Mondulkiri Provincial Court on Monday by residents of Lames and Pou Lu villages who claim two community leaders stole land to sell.

The four indigenous plaintiffs also filed a complaint against an environment official for not preventing the offences and against a couple – Kek Than and his wife Oeu – for land grabbing offences.

A program was announced by Lae MP and Minister for Lands and Physical Planning John Rosso to assist people in Lae with land title issues. Mr Rosso said the program is to help those who have been residing on state land and other existing land for years without titles. “This is to give land title to people who are sitting on the existing land without attaining the land title. We will start the program at Tenth City where those in the area will be sorted out,” Mr Rosso said.

The Lagos State government says it has set up drop box facility at the Land Registry in its Lands Bureau to ensure unhindered land title documentation in this dire period of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The drop box facility is administered at the collection centre of the Lands Registry, said the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Lands Bureau, Mr. Olabode Agoro, at a webinar on: “COVID 19 Disruption and Land Title Administration in Lagos State: Preserving the Business of Real Estate”, organised by DF Legal, a firm of legal practitioners.

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction on Tuesday said 550 officials in inter-ministerial groups are set to implement a land registration plan in Mondulkiri province.

The announcement came at a meeting chaired by Minister Chea Sophara and attended by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon, Minister of Environment Say Sam Al, and Mondulkiri provincial governor Svay Sam Eang.