Aweil North County, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 129,898
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 362,132
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 168,813

Ethnic groups: Rek Dinka (Malual)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 12,000 IDPs (+7,897 Q1 2020) and 31,725 returnees (-3,918 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

Aweil North County is located in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State. It borders Aweil West County to the south and Aweil East County to the east. It also borders Western Bahr el-Ghazal State (Raja County) to the west and Sudan to the north.

The county falls under the western flood plains sorghum and cattle livelihood zone (FEWSNET 2018), with grassland, swampy areas with papyrus reed, and pockets of forest found in this area. According to the FAO and WFP (2022), an estimated 80% of households were farmers, with a gross cereal yield of 0.95 tonnes per hectare in 2021. This yield fell to 0.9 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). The main crops are sorghum, groundnut, sesame, maize and vegetables. Sandy soil is generally found in the county’s north, near the border with Sudan, and is considered the most fertile. In addition to farming in Aweil North, seasonal migration of young men into commercial farm work and peri-urban manual labour in Sudan has been a longstanding seasonal dynamic (Kindersley & Majok 2019).

Decades of conflict and insecurity within South Sudan and across the border in Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan regions have accelerated pre-existing patterns of migration through forced displacement from Aweil to Sudan and elsewhere. Periodic closures of the border with Sudan (with which local markets have been historically integrated), runaway inflation and widespread insecurity since 2012 have further deepened this trend. This has been reflected in high levels of food insecurity, indebtedness and exploitation as part of agricultural labour or participation in armed groups (Kindersley and Majok 2019). This progressive monetization of land, life and work in Aweil has pushed many poor residents into insecure waged labor, precarious systems of rent and high interest short-term loans.

The IPC projections for the county were at Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels in November 2022, and is projected to remain the same level throughout the first half of 2023 due to persistent food insecurity in the county. Flooding is a regular concern for both agriculturalists and pastoralists, resulting in damaged crops and homesteads, and at times in a loss of cattle. Flooding has also hindered cross-border transport and trade between Gok-Machar town and East Darfur State in Sudan (Radio Tamazuj 2021a). Changing weather patterns and flooding have also meant that cattle have to migrate in non-traditional patterns, limiting access to milk to supplement food sources. Additionally, an increase in livestock diseases and mortality have hindered cattle-keeping as a viable livelihood in the area.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The headquarters of Aweil North County is based in Gok Machar town, located in Malual North Payam. Due to the county’s proximity to Sudan, its trade and migration routes leading to the northern border have been impacted by border closures, natural disasters as well as inter-communal violence.

Aweil North is home to one hundred and nineteen (119) primary schools and four (4) secondary schools. There are currently no Early Childhood Development centres in Aweil North County.

Aweil North County was reported to have forty-four (44) health facilities including thirty-eight (38) functional health facilities, among them thirty-three (33) PHCUs and five (5) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 2.58 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.48 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Aweil North as among the ten counties with the highest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. No hospitals were reported in Aweil North County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, over 118,100 people are considered to have humanitarian needs in Aweil North County (up slightly from 115,100 in 2021), which is approximately 70% of the estimated population for the county reported in the HNO. In 2020, OCHA considered Aweil North as one of fourteen counties where GBV needs are considered “extreme”. Minimal infrastructure and services contribute to the significant food insecurity in the county. This in turn has made the county more reliant on humanitarian aid to support the population. Following the outbreak of fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan in April 2023, 8,529 people fleeing the conflict in Sudan registered in Aweil North County (948 at Jaach, 7,439 at Kiir Adem, and 142 at Gok Machar) (UNHCR/IOM 2023).

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Historically, there have been tensions between the Dinka Malual of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state and nomadic Misseriya and Rizeigat tribes of Sudan. The conflict stems from the annual migration of the Sudanese tribes into what is now South Sudan for water and pasture. The Dinka Malual hold annual peace conferences with the Misseriya and Rizeigat in order to discuss migration routes and how to resolve any conflicts which might arise during the migration. In recent years, the process has reportedly been strained by the involvement of the SPLA and Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and increasing hostility among the Dinka Malual towards the northern tribes.

Although relatively more stable than other parts of South Sudan, Aweil North continues to be impacted by occasional inter-communal violence.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Malual North (County Headquarters at Gok Machar), Ariath, Malual Centre, Malual East, Malual West

UN OCHA 2020 map of Aweil North County: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/fr/operations/south-sudan/infographic/south-sudan-aweil-north-county-reference-map

Roads:

• A primary road connects Gok-Machar to the Sudanese border to the county’s north. Seasonal road conditions are unknown. The same road runs southeast and connects Gok Machar to the state capital Aweil Town via Nyamlell. This road was considered “passable with difficulties” during both the rainy and dry seasons of 2022 and 2023 (respectively) by the Logistics Cluster.
• A primary road runs south of Gok-Machar to Aweil West County, whereupon it becomes a secondary road running west to Raja town in Western Bahr el-Ghazal State. This road was deemed “passable with difficulties” during both the rainy and dry seasons of 2022 and 2023 (respectively) by the Logistics Cluster, up until Gossinga in Raja County, where the road becomes impassable. Logistics Cluster maps indicate that a bypass road from Gossinga to Raja town is passable with difficulty.
• A network of secondary roads is located in the eastern areas of Aweil North, running to Sudan and east and north-east to Aweil East County. Seasonal road conditions are unknown.

UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: None

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2022). Death toll rises to 24 in Misseriya attack in Aweilv. Retrieved 18 July 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.

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

Gorur, A., Jok, J.M., & Mayai, A.T. (2014). Perception of Security in Aweil North County, South Sudan. Sudd Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

IRNA. (2020). Joint assessment report for Aweil North, October 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Juba Monitor. (2022). Misseriya peace talks suspended in Aweil. Retrieved via Wayback Machine 18 July 2023.

Kindersley, N. and Majok, J. (2019). Monetized Livelihoods and Militarized Labour in South Sudan’s Borderlands. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

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

Radio Tamazuj (2021a). Aweil North County: Heavy rains disrupt border trade with Sudan. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021b). Post-migration conference concludes in Aweil East. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021c). South Sudan, Sudan border reopening stalled. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Swisspeace. (2014). Final report: Northern Bahr-el Ghazal State, South Sudan Conflict Sensitivity Assessment. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

UNHCR/IOM. (2023). Population Movement from Sudan to South Sudan. Information from interactive dashboard retrieved 20 July 2023.

World Vision International. (2019). Fire razes villages in South Sudan’s Aweil North; 37 people died and 93 injured. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

REPORTS on AWEIL NORTH

Boswell, A. (2019). Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Gorur, A., Jok, J.M., & Mayai, A.T. (2014). Perception of Security in Aweil North County, South Sudan. Sudd Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: Aweil North County Atlas. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Kindersley, N. and Majok, J.D. (2020). COVID-19 in South Sudan’s Borderlands A view from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Kindersley, N. and Majok, J.D. (2020). Breaking Out of the Borderlands: Understanding migrant pathways from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Kindersley, N. (2018). Politics, power and chiefship in famine and war A study of the former Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Majok, J. D. (2021). War, Migration and Work – Agricultural labour and cross-border migration from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Rift Valley Institute. (2020). South Sudan: Hussein Abdel Bagi deepens his control of the borderland. RVI Field Update 5. Retrieved 18 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.