Akobo County, Jonglei State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 136,210
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 90,840
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 226,978

Ethnic groups: Lou Nuer (Mor) and Anyuak

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 21,896 IDPs (+4,948 Q1 2020) and 14,555 returnees (-2,749 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Emergency (Phase 4); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4); April to July 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Akobo County is located in the north-eastern corner of Jonglei State and borders Nyirol, Uror, Pibor and Pochalla Counties in Jonglei State, Ulang County in Upper Nile State to the north, and Ethiopia to the east. Two rivers – the Pibor River to the west of Akobo Town and Akobo River to the east of Akobo Town – flow northwards through the county before joining together and emptying into the Sobat River.

Akobo County falls with two livelihood zones: the eastern plains sorghum and cattle zone, as well as the northeastern maize, cattle and fishing zone (FEWSNET 2018). A 2018 report from FAO and WFP estimated that 40% of households engage in agriculture, which increased to 55% in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022. Gross cereal yields were reported at 0.95 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasingly to one tonne per hectare the following year (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). Agriculture is rain-fed and the main crops grown are sorghum, maize, cowpeas, pumpkin, and okra. Traditionally, livestock are not herded great distances, but young herders do travel to swampy riverine areas during the dry season to water and pasture their herds. Livelihoods are further supplemented by foraging and fishing. The main livelihood hazards include insecurity, flooding, livestock diseases, pests and drought conditions.

The main market is in Akobo town, with residents in the north also accessing the market in Lankien in Nyirol County. The market in Akobo town is mainly supplied by via road from Ethiopia, with a small percentage of supplies transported via air from Juba. Although Akobo previously received supplies via boat from Malakal, local sources indicate this is no longer the case. While agriculture, livestock and fishing are viable livelihood options, even prior to independence insecurity affected local food production and access to markets. In addition, the presence of a significant displaced persons population has stressed community resources. Widespread losses of crops and household assets due to flooding in 2012 and 2016 affected the county’s agriculture production in the following years. This flooding has also often resulted in markets in Akobo, Uror and Nyirol Counties being completely cut off from reliable supply chains. Floods in late 2019 as well as 2021 had a similar impact, destroying local food sources in terms of crops and markets and heightening food insecurity for the area.

Food insecurity has been a sustained challenge for Akobo County. IPC projections for Akobo are at Emergency levels (IPC Phase 4) of food insecurity as of November 2022, and are project to remain at Emergency levels until at least July 2023. Moreover, 25% of households in the county meet 25-50% of their caloric needs through humanitarian assistance. As recently as early 2020, up to 40,000 people spread across Akobo, Duk and Ayod counties were estimated to be in Humanitarian Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5).

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county headquarters are located in Akobo Town, in Bilkey Payam. The town has been historically isolated from the rest of Jonglei State due to tough terrain and historically limited road and telephone network. Access to services in Akobo County were poor even before South Sudan’s independence, and many of the existing or newly built schools and healthcare facilities were destroyed by violence, had been taken over by armed groups, used as ad hoc displacement sites by IDPs, or have deteriorated to the point they are unusable since 2013. Akobo County is one of the routes used by those displaced during the Sudanese and South Sudanese civil wars fleeing to the refugee camps in western Ethiopia. As a result, the community in Akobo has hosted large numbers of IDPs since the resurgence of violence in December 2013. This has placed greater stress on local infrastructure and services.

Despite these challenges, educational services remain a presence in Akobo. Akobo County is home to seven (7) Early Childhood Development centres, fifty-one (51) primary schools and two (2) secondary schools located (located in Walgak and Bilkey payams).

Akobo County was reported to have seventeen (17) health facilities including thirteen (13) functional health facilities, among them ten (10) PHCUs and three (3) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 0.66 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.66 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Akobo as among the ten counties with the lowest ratios of PHCUs for South Sudan. No hospitals were reported in Akobo County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, over 181,800 people in Akobo are estimated to have humanitarian needs (down from 98,900 in 2021), which represents around 80% of the estimated population for the county reported in the HNO. Of those in need in 2022, over 76,000 were IDPs or returnees. Akobo was classified as one of six counties in OCHA’s catastrophic category in regard to GBV based on nationwide FSMNS+ assessments with identified the risks of GBV to be exceptionally high and access to GBV-related services very low throughout Akobo County (OCHA 2021, p.50). Populations in remote areas are hard-to-reach, particularly during the rainy season, when they have to be accessed by boat.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

As a strategic border region, Akobo has played a central role in the Sudanese and South Sudanese civil wars. Alongside participation in national conflicts, parts of the Lou Nuer community have also been central actors in series of localised conflicts: in recent decades this has included conflict (and peacemaking) with elements of the Murle community from Pibor County, alongside intra-Nuer conflicts that have occurred at the sub-clan level in the areas surrounding Akobo, and between parts of the Lou and Eastern Jikany Nuer communities from Upper Nile. Moreover, contests between the Anyuak and Nuer have reverberated from Ethiopia’s Gambella Region to adjoining regions of South Sudan, as is discussed further in the profile for Pochalla County. Decades of militarization, marginalization and violent confrontations have scarred the development and recovery potential of the area.

Historical dynamics prior to CPA (pre-2005)

During the second half of the 1970s, Akobo was one of a number of areas of Southern Sudan to experience a mutiny, with mutinying forces feeding into the nascent Anya-Nya 2 insurgency. Many of the Anya-Nya 2 fighters were from the Lou and Eastern Jikany Nuer communities. In 1983, relations between Anya-Nya 2 and the newly established SPLM/A soured, resulting in a series of clashes between the two forces in the mid-1980s, including Anya-Nya 2 ambushes on SPLM/A recruits transiting to Ethiopia and SPLM/A attacks on communities perceived to be aligned to Anya-Nya 2 (Johnson 2003, pp.82-84). Following reconciliation and absorption of much of Anya-Nya 2 into the SPLM/A in 1988, the SPLM/A seized Akobo the following year. During this time, Akobo hosted a peace conference between the Nuer, Murle, and Anyuak communities to improve relations and curtail raiding (Johnson 1998, p.66). However, after the 1991 SPLM/A split Riek Machar’s SPLM/A Nasir faction took Akobo and surrounding areas, and mobilised Nuer community militias alongside his organized forces. Subsequent fighting in and around Bor led to more than 2,000 (largely Dinka civilian) fatalities, and mass displacement (ICG 2009, p.3).

In the following years, increasing political factionalisation, gun ownership, and raiding between a number of Nuer sections resulted in significant insecurity in northern Jonglei and south-eastern Upper Nile, which a 1994 peace conference in Akobo was unable to bring to a halt (Johnson 2003, p.118; Nyaba 1997, p.123). Conflict and fragmentation among opposition factions in the area intensified following the conference, ultimately forcing the leaders of the factions to either re-align with John Garang’s SPLM/A faction or deepen their ties to Khartoum (Johnson 2009, p.41). Further instability affected Akobo in the early 2000s, with the area contested between the SPLA and the government and their respective affiliates, including the South Sudan Liberation Movement (a Nuer opposition group that would align with the government in 2002). Meanwhile, despite a truce having been negotiated between the Murle, Lou Nuer, and Anyuak in 1990, Murle militias would engage in increased cattle raids into Akobo as the 1990s progressed (Johnson 2003, p.93, 114). Following in the steps of the Wunlit Peace Conference of 1999, the Liliir Peace Conference of May 2000 brought together many of Jonglei’s communities in a bid to halt raiding and retaliatory attacks.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, Akobo continued to be affected by inter-linked political developments and subnational violence. Militias from parts of the Lou Nuer community were the subject of a forcible disarmament campaign by the SPLA in early 2006, which led to significant violence in parts of Uror and Nyirol counties, with Lou Nuer youth allegedly supported by commanders who had recently joined the SPLA (Alden and Arnold 2007; Young 2007). In an effort to avoid violence (and economic hardship associated with hosting SPLA units), local authorities in Akobo negotiated a peaceful handover of weapons from the county, albeit with forcible disarmament on the horizon in the event that weapons were not handed over. A limited number of weapons were reportedly collected, except in Anyuak areas in south-eastern Akobo. Weapons were allegedly redistributed back to the community by local authorities in late 2006, after the Lou Nuer were threatened with attack from Murle militias (ICG 2009, fn. 24).

CPA, Early Independence and Civil War (2005-2018)

During the CPA-era, tensions between the Lou Nuer of Akobo and the Eastern Jikany Nuer of Upper Nile reignited in 2009, while elements of the Lou Nuer community from Akobo and neighbouring areas became embroiled in raiding with Dinka communities from western Jonglei, though would at times co-operate with Dinka militias during violence in Pibor. Relations markedly deteriorated between parts of the Murle and Dinka and Nuer communities during the CPA-era, culminating in significant violence in the Jonglei in 2009 and 2011 (ICG 2014; Thomas 2015, Ch. 8), as well as a high-profile attack in the Wangar area to the far north of the county in February 2013 (UNMISS 2013). Many Lou Nuer youth also joined George Athor’s opposition movement in 2010 and 2011, returning home in December 2011 with weapons and ammunition they used in Pibor.

In the early stages of the national conflict (2013-2018), many Nuer officers and soldiers within the security sector defected to the SPLA-IO in Jonglei State, including in Akobo. Armed elements of the Lou Nuer community responded to the outbreak of violence in Juba in December 2013 by attacking the UNMISS base in Akobo on 19 December, reportedly in order to target Dinka civilians and security operatives sheltering in the base, while both community-based defence groups and formal military members quickly joining the push towards Juba (ICG 2014, pp.25-27). UNMISS withdrew from Akobo following the incident, with abandoned UNMISS vehicles reportedly used by white army members (ICG 2014, p.26).

During the national conflict, the SPLA were unable to threaten Akobo town, largely due to its remote and inaccessible location, though a number of clashes were reported in the county in 2017 and 2018, notably in Walgak Payam near to Waat town (often referred to as West Akobo). Additionally, attacks by white army militias (including from the Lou Nuer) on increasingly well-defended SPLA positions in Jonglei State (and Nasir in Upper Nile State) would continue intermittently during the second half of the national conflict, with Lou Nuer white armies sustaining major casualties during assaults on Waat in 2017 (Craze 2020, p.76; Young 2016), while local sources indicated white army militia also raided Lekuangole in Pibor the same year. Notably, while much of the Murle community from the newly established Greater Pibor Administrative Area remained loyal to the government, they did not engage in organized attacks on the Nuer areas as part of the civil war effort. Murle authorities were keen to maintain improved relations with the Lou Nuer and avoid being dragged into the national conflict, and took steps to return stolen cattle and punish Murle raiders when raids did occur (Felix da Costa et al. 2022, p.235).

Escalating sub-national violence and peacebuilding (2020-present)

Since the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018, Akobo has been less directly involved in national-level political disputes, though has been enmeshed in several episodes of internal and cross-border violence, some of which is connected to political and military activity at the national level. Government restrictions on supplies of food and other goods to Akobo were also reported to have remained in effect as of 2019 (UNHCR 2020, pp.26-28). During an SPLA-IO recruitment tour in 2019, a prominent Lou Nuer opposition commander was reportedly unable to recruit significant numbers of fighters from the Lou Nuer of eastern Akobo (Craze 2020, p.77). The same commander was unable to mobilise significant numbers of Lou Nuer commanders and soldiers to break away from the mainstream SPLA-IO and join the SPLA-IO Kitgweng faction. Despite this, there have been limited clashes and tensions between SPLA-IO and Kitgweng forces in and around Akobo (UNSC 2022, p.4). Intra-Lou Nuer violence has also been reported in Akobo, including a clash in mid-2018 that killed at least 25 people (Sudan Tribune 2018), and another in late 2021 that killed ten (Sudans Post 2021). Much of Akobo has also been unsettled by recurrent low-level intra-Lou Nuer fighting (including in Walgak Payam away from Akobo town, as well as Bilkey and Deng Jok payams closer to the town), though deaths and injuries linked to these conflicts are usually in the single figures.

Akobo has also been affected by a series of raids and ambushes attributed to Murle youth. Although armed Murle youth have been active in the Akobo area (particularly youth from the area of Nanaam in north-west Pibor County), attacks are often attributed to the Murle based upon little or no evidence, with some attacks later transpiring to be instances of intra-Nuer fighting or raiding. After the formation of the RTGoNU in February 2020, power alliances within Jonglei shifted, fuelling large-scale subnational conflict between the Dinka, Nuer and Murle. This violence – as well as the March 2021 Pieri peace agreement and subsequent violence in late 2022/early 2023 – is discussed in greater detail in the profiles for Pibor, Nyirol and Uror counties.

Additionally, there are underlying tensions between parts of the Lou Nuer and Anyuak communities. Some of these tensions relate to events in Gambella (discussed in the profile for Pochalla County), while others stem from the gradual displacement of the Anyuak in Akobo county since the 1980s; the changing composition of Akobo town; and unaddressed land disputes. In October 2013, the issue escalated significantly when a group of Lou Nuer youth reportedly killed the Anyuak paramount chief, causing thousands of Anyuak to flee to Ethiopia (ICG 2014, p.25), which was followed by further violence in late 2015 in Akobo town (Radio Tamazuj 2015). A significant Anyuak population continues to reside in Alali Payam, which is mostly cut-off from Akobo town (OCHA 2021). In April 2023, four Anyuak fishermen were wounded in an attack in the area (Radio Tamazuj 2023a), although the identity of the attackers is unconfirmed. Escalating violence between parts of the Anyuak and Eastern Jikany Nuer communities in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region, alongside the temporary suspension of food aid in Ethiopia by the US government, has resulted in significant numbers of Nuer civilians being displaced to Akobo and south-east Upper Nile State (Radio Tamazuj 2023b). Local sources estimated that around 10,000 people arrived in Akobo between early August and mid-September 2023, while a recent REACH (2024) report indicates that some returnees entering South Sudan via Akobo are travelling by foot to nearby counties of Jonglei and Upper Nile states.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Alali/Gakdong, Barmach, Bilkey (County Headquarters: Akobo Town), Buong, Deng Jok, Diror, Nyandit, Walgak.

UN OCHA 2020 map of Akobo County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-akobo-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

• A primary road connects Akobo town to Bor town (in Bor South County), via Gadiang. The road was deemed impassable during the rainy season of 2022, and was impassable between Akobo and Gadiang during the dry season of 2023 (though was designated “passable with difficulties” between Gadiang and Bor.
• A secondary road runs south-east from Akobo town to Pochalla town (in Pochalla County), the condition of this road is unknown.
• A secondary road runs south from Akobo town to Pibor town (in Pibor County), which was designated as impassable during the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
• A secondary road runs west from Akobo town to Waat town (in Nyirol County), which was designated as impassable during the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
• The Akobo river runs into the Sobat River, linking Akobo town to an important river route that runs between Akobo town north and west to Canal town (Canal/Pigi County) via Nasir, through which a number of key ports along the Sobat River can be supplied.
• River transport between Akobo and Ethiopia also supports trade and markets in the county, however accessibility conditions of this route is unknown.

UNHAS-Recognized Heli Landing Sites and Airstrips: Akobo, Wiech Jol, Buong

Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Walgak

REFERENCES

Arnold, M. and Alden, C. (2007). “This Gun is our Food”: Demilitarising the White Army Militias of South Sudan. NUPI working paper. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Craze, J. (2020). The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan, 2005-2020. LSE. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2023). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 31 July 2023. See equivalent versions of the CFSAM report online for data from previous years.

Felix da Costa, D., Pendle, N. and Tubiana, J. (2022). ‘The growing politicisation and militarisation of cattle-raiding among the Western Nuer and Murle during South Sudan’s civil wars’ in Bach, J-N. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on the Horn of Africa, pp.224-238. Abingdon: Oxfordshire.

FEWSNET. (2018). Livelihoods Zone Map and Descriptions for the Republic of South Sudan (Updated). Retrieved 10 July 2023.

ICG. (2009). Jonglei’s Tribal Conflicts: Countering Insecurity in South Sudan. Retrieved 27 September 2023.

ICG. (2014). South Sudan: Jonglei – “We Have Always Been at War”. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Johnson, D.H. (1998). ‘The Sudan People’s Liberation Army & the problem of factionalism’, in Clapham, C. (ed.) African Guerillas, pp.53-72. Oxford: James Currey.

Johnson, D.H. (2003). The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars. Oxford: James Currey.

OCHA. (2021). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

OCHA (2021). IRNA Report for Alali Payam, Akobo, 17 February 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

OHCHR/UNMISS (2021). Armed violence involving community-based militias in Jonglei: January – August 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2015). Calls for investigation of alleged ethnic killings in Akobo. Retrieved 16 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Community leaders call for evacuation of Akobo attack victims. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023b). 4,000 returnees in Akobo appeal for aid. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2014). The Conflict in Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Sudans Post. (2021). Deadly Akobo communal violence kills 10. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2018). South Sudan tribal clash leaves 25 dead people: officials. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Thomas, E. (2015). South Sudan: A Slow Liberation. London: Zed Books.

UNHCR. (2020). “There is nothing left for us”: starvation as a method of warfare in South Sudan. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2013). Report on the 8 February 2013 attack on Lou Nuer pastoralists in Akobo West Sub-County, Jonglei State. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

UNSC. (2022). Situation in South Sudan Report of the Secretary-General, S/2022/156. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Young, J. (2007). Sudan People’s Liberation Army: Disarmament in Jonglei and its implications. Institute for Security Studies. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Young, J. (2016). Popular Struggles and Elite Co-optation: The Nuer White Army in South Sudan’s Civil War. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

REPORTS on AKOBO

Arensen, M. (2015). Historical Grievances and Fragile Agreements: An Analysis of Local Conflict Dynamics in Akobo. NRC. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Arnold, M.B. & Alden, C. (2007). ‘The gun is our food’: Disarming the White Army in South Sudan. Conflict, Security & Development 7(3), 361-385. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Breidlid, I. and Arensen, M. (2017). ‘The Nuer White Armies: Comprehending South Sudan’s most infamous community defence group’ in Saferworld, Informal armies: Community defence groups in South Sudan’s civil war, 27-40. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Carver, F. (2020). Rethinking Aid in Borderland Spaces: The case of Akobo. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Christian Aid. (2017). In it for the long haul? Lessons on peacebuilding in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Gordon, R. (2014). In the eye of the storm: An analysis of internal conflict in South Sudan’s Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Meraki Labs/Danish Refugee Council. (2021). Conflict Dynamics Driving Displacement in Akobo. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Oxfam. (2019). No Simple Solutions: Women, Displacement and Durable Solutions in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Oxfam. (2022). The Impact of Food Insecurity on Women and Girls: Research from Pibor and Akobo counties, Jonglei State, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

REACH. (2024). Humanitarian Situation Overview: Ethiopia – South Sudan Cross-Border Displacement. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

RVI. (2020). No One Can Stay Without Someone: Transitional Networks Among the Nuer in Gambella. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey/HSBA (2012). My neighbor, my enemy: Inter-tribal violence in Jonglei. October 2012. HSBA. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey/HSBA. (2014). The Conflict in Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

* Note: The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Population Estimation Survey (PES) was published in April 2023 based on data collected in May-June 2021. This uses a different method to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Population Working Group (PWG) figures produced based on a combination of 2008 census data and population movement data up to 2022. The large discrepancies are primarily attributable to these different methods rather than changes in the actual population numbers over time and have been disputed by some civil society and analysts. Although the later PWG figures were produced more recently for the HNO 2023, at the request of the Government of South Sudan the data and method used by the PES is being used as the basis for the Common Operational Dataset (COD) for the UN system for the HNO 2024 and likely beyond. For further detail on this and other sources used in the county profiles, see the accompanying Methodological Note.