By Obiala Angel De-son – Torit
Authorities in Torit County of Eastern Equatoria State on Monday launched a two-day training for community distributors of treated insecticide mosquito nets as part of efforts to combat malaria in the area.
Speaking during the opening of the training at the Torit County headquarters, Commissioner Lokang Charles Italian urged distributors to properly register households and sensitize communities on the correct use of mosquito nets. He warned residents against misusing the nets for commercial activities, fishing, fencing, or construction purposes.
The commissioner further announced that anyone found selling mosquito nets intended for free community distribution would face a fine of 100,000 South Sudanese Pounds.
“The registrars all people living in Nyong payam will have to be registered base on their households and tell the community to avoid using mosquito nets for commercial purposes, building houses however this nets are mainly made to fight spread of mosquito nets many people will try to use it for sell, tell them this strong massage whoever is found selling it will be fine 100,000ssp.”
Commissioner Lokang also directed registration teams to ensure that every household in Nyong Payam is captured during the exercise, including foreign nationals residing in the area.
“everyone in Nyong payam, whether a white man, woman including those from the neighboring countries like Uganda, Kenya will all have to be registered because many of them are renting here in Torit town they are poor they don’t have houses.”
Meanwhile, Torit County Health Coordinator Ohisa Anthony emphasized the need for transparency and accountability during the registration and distribution process. He instructed registrars to ensure no household is left out and appealed to store managers and local chiefs to safeguard the mosquito nets before distribution.
“We have been waiting for it for a long time; the training would have started since April before the rain starts being very serious however, it’s not bad. To the registrars we do not want any house hold not to be registered and to the store managers cooperate with chiefs on the ground to assist in protection of mosquito nets because we do not want any net to disappear from the store, in case of any net that remains from the distribution of the day it has to be returned back in the store.”
On his part, Torit County Health Link Coordinator Lelang Caesar Tobiolo revealed that the distribution exercise, expected to begin on Wednesday, will be digitized to improve efficiency, accountability, and transparency in ensuring the mosquito nets reach the intended beneficiaries.
He also appealed to county authorities to provide adequate security for distributors operating in remote communities.
“This net distribution will be digitalize for to assist in terms of efficiency, accountability and transparency so that the mosquito nets reach the right beneficiaries, just right away after the training the launching and beginning of distribution will commence on Wednesday May-27th-2026 together with the digitalize fund from UNICEF and the National ministry of health from Juba to guide the team here because they will be the sole distributors on ground. The agreement here is that you will only work of ten days where you worked passed the ten days or not.”
According to organizers, the training that commenced on Monday brought together 88 participants, including 66 men and 17 women, drawn from eight payams of Torit County. Officials said the expected number of participants was 98.