South Sudan looking into U.S. land deal

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan, Jan 27 (Reuters) - South Sudan's administration is looking into a 4,000 sq km land investment by a U.S. businessman because of questions over who owns the plot, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Philippe Heilberg, chairman and CEO of New York-based investment firm Jarch Capital, told Reuters earlier this month he had leased the land in a deal involving the son of a senior army officer in semi-autonomous south Sudan.

The agreement put a spotlight on a surge in foreign interest in African agricultural land after commodity prices surged last year, but also raised questions over land rights on a continent where these are often not set down clearly.

The chairman of south Sudan's Land Commission, Robert Lado, said he was looking into the case to see whether all necessary agreements had been secured.

"We really need to look at (the contract) and if need be revisit it," he told Reuters, adding that authorities in south Sudan's capital Juba had not been consulted about the deal and he had first heard about it through media reports.

Lado said he needed more information before discussing what action, if any, might be taken.

He said he would ask officials in South Sudan's Unity state to send details of the case for examination by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Land Commission, the state body responsible for land policy and settling disputes.

South Sudan's administration was set up under a 2005 peace deal to end over two decades of war with the north.