Awerial County, Lakes State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 47,041
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 144,680
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 112,435

Ethnic groups: Aliab Dinka (Akeer, Akuei, Apuk, Bulok)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 57,606 IDPs (+6,196 Q1 2020) and 5,296 returnees (+1,965 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2023 Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Awerial County is located in the south-eastern corner of Lakes State. It borders Yirol West County to the north-west and Yirol East County to the north-east. It also borders Jonglei State (Bor South County) to the east and Central Equatoria State (Terekeka County) to the south.

The county falls within the ironstone plateau agro-pastoral livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). In 2018, FAO and WFP reported that 60% of households engage in agriculture. More recent figures from the FAO/WFP indicate that an estimated 65% of households in Awerial are engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 0.8 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), increasing to 1 tonne per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023).

The Western flood plains zone towards the county’s south experiences seasonal flooding, with savannahs turning into swamps in the rainy season. In this area, residents herd cattle and goats and mainly grow sorghum, ground nuts, maize, pumpkin and beans. Wild produce such as water lily seeds and nuts are also consumed. The Nile-Sobat zone is located on the county’s eastern border with the White Nile and is characterized by green vegetation, black cotton soils and swamps and wetlands. People living near the White Nile, located at the county’s eastern border with Jonglei State, engage in cattle keeping, agriculture and fishing. The Ironstone Plateau covers areas towards the centre of Awerial County, where open savannah woodland and porous soils can be found. Residents in this area rely mainly on farming for their livelihoods, with mainly sorghum and maize being grown. The soil in Awerial County contains high clay content, and cereals planted are predominantly late-maturing sorghum landrace, thus crop development is able to withstand relative fluctuations in rainfall.

IPC projections put Awerial County at crisis (IPC level 3) levels in November 2022, with food insecurity conditions projected to persist at the same level until March 2023, whereupon it deteriorates to emergency (IPC level 4) levels. Between December 2022 and July 2023, over 25% of households in the county are projected to require between 25% and 50% of their calorific needs to be provided through humanitarian assistance. Food insecurity has been compounded by the large number of IDPs that have fled to the county since 2013 and repeated bouts of flooding and flood-related displacement since 2019.

In 2020 Awerial County experienced significant flooding. From mid-July to the first week of August 2020, Awerial County experienced a deadly combination of flash floods from heavy rains and overflow from the River Nile which severely affected and displaced settlements along the river and across lowland areas. Key informants from Awerial described this flood as one of the worst floods they have ever witnessed in their lifetimes. The floodwaters destroyed households’ assets, shelters, crops, and fishing nets as well as structures such as schools and churches (IRNA 2020).

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The county headquarters of Awerial are located at Mingkaman in the east of the county. The Nile River provides an important means for transportation of goods in the county.

While current educational facilities are not sufficient to meet the needs of all the youth of Awerial, Awerial County is home to twenty-three (23) primary schools. There are currently no three (3) Early Childhood Development centres (though three (3) were reported in 2021), and no secondary schools in the county (although Kon Anok secondary school was reported in 2021, and was located in Puluk Payam).

Awerial County was reported to have nine (9) health facilities and all of which were reported to be functioning. Among the health facilities, there are five (5) PHCUs and four (4) PHCCs as of 2022. This means that there were an estimated .54 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.07 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Awerial as among the ten counties with the lowest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. No hospitals were reported in Awerial County.

OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023 estimated that there are 112,435 people with humanitarian needs in the county (up markedly from 81,700 in 2021). The number of people in need represents 80% of the estimated population of Awerial County reported in the HNO. This places considerable pressure on local infrastructure and services. In particular, the county has comparatively high levels of need in the areas of shelter and non-food items, protection, child protection and WASH.

Mingkaman hosts a large number of IDPs that have fled violence in southwestern Jonglei and central Lakes. This influx has both placed pressure on local resources and services, and led to an influx of aid and resources that has enabled the expansion of infrastructure, such as radio services and logistics. The majority of IDPs are hosted at the Mingkaman Spontaneous Settlement, near the county’s eastern border on the banks of the White Nile. By January 2014, the small fishing village of Mingkaman, with a population of approximately 7,700, had received roughly 85,000 IDPs – mainly from Jonglei’s Bor South, Twic East and Duk Counties. The camp’s population has fluctuated depending on the levels of conflict, food insecurity and flood related displacement in neighbouring counties.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Greater Yirol (comprising Awerial, Yirol East and Yirol West counties) was an SPLM/A stronghold during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), as is discussed in greater detail in the profiles for Yirol East and West. Although the Aliab Dinka of Awerial have close linkages to the Ciec Dinka (including through the shared use of grazing land along the Nile) and to a lesser extent the Atuot/Atwot of Greater Yirol. The Aliab Dinka have also been closely connected to the Dinka Bor of Jonglei State, alongside the Mundari of Central Equatoria’s Terekeka County.

Awerial has served as a sanctuary for people fleeing violence during the second civil war. This includes displaced persons from in and around Bor, who arrived in Awerial following attacks on Bor in 1991 and again during the start of the national conflict (2013-2018). The Aliab Dinka have experienced both co-operative and combative relations with the Mundari, with historical disputes arising over access to grazing land and cattle theft, as well as control over the cattle trade to Juba (Wani Gore 2014). In late 2009, raiding between groups of pastoralists from the Aliab Dinka and Mundari escalated, resulted in dozens of deaths and displacement from a number of villages (Sudan Tribune 2009a; Sudan Tribune 2009b). A peace meeting was held between representatives from Terekeka County and parts of Lakes and Jonglei states the following year (Ryle and Amuom 2018, p.10), and an agreement regulating the movement of cattle and penalties for cattle theft was reached between Awerial and Terekeka counties in 2014 (Peace Agreements Database, n.d.). A peace conference in the tri-border area between Lakes, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria states occurred the following year (Eye Radio 2015).

In 2004, cross-border conflict relating to claims over grazing land near to the River Nile escalated between parts of the Atuot community and communities from the Aliab and Ciec Dinka clans, plunging much of the Greater Yirol area into recurrent raids and counter-attacks (Ryle and Amuom 2018). The violence was complicated by the sometimes turbulent relationship between the SPLM/A and residents of Greater Yirol, with this turbulence feeding into the conflict between the Atuot and Dinka after 2004 amid allegations of perceived bias towards the Atuot in the provision of government resources. Moreover, repeated disarmament campaigns in Greater Yirol between 2000 and 2011 generated tensions with the gelweng (armed cattle guards), whilst firearms were reported to be redistributed back into the area by authorities after the campaigns (Ryle and Amuom 2018, pp.33-34, 59). Multi-year peace negotiations eventually brought the violence to an end in 2011.

Awerial County did not experience significant fighting between the government and SPLA-IO during the recent national conflict (2013-2018). However, in January 2014 clashes were reported between government forces and defectors who were attempting to reach Unity State from Central Equatoria via Awerial (Sudan Tribune 2014). Awerial received significant influxes of both IDPs and their livestock in the immediate aftermath of outbreak of conflict in neighbouring Jonglei State, with many displaced persons from the Dinka communities of south-eastern Jonglei State settling at Mingkaman, which has subsequently been the site of occasional protests. Notably, in September 2015 members of the host community were involved in a violent demonstration against perceived bias in the hiring process on the part of NGOs and the UN (Radio Tamazuj 2015). Disputes within the Episcopal Church (which have been concentrated in Bor, and are discussed further in the profile for Bor South County) have also affected Awerial County, with instances of arson and fighting reported in 2021 and 2022, respectively (Radio Tamazuj 2021a; Radio Tamazuj 2022).

Internal violence among parts of the Aliab Dinka has intermittently occurred (Radio Tamazuj 2014a; Radio Tamazuj 2023), though generally at low levels, particularly when compared to intra-Dinka raiding in western areas of Lakes State. However, most violence affecting Awerial is cross-border in nature. Violence escalated once again in Greater Yirol in June 2017, following an alleged Atuot raid against the Akeer section of Aliab Dinka that killed over 30 people (Sudan Tribune 2017). The fighting raised fears of a return to a situation on intractable conflict between parts of the Atuot and Dinka communities, as had occurred between 2004-2011. However, a combination of immediate intervention and peacemaking efforts on the part of customary and government officials (alongside youth groups) and unwillingness among most sections of the Atuot for escalating the conflict helped contain the violence. Additionally, the desire for security in the face of a common threat may have provided an impetus for Greater Yirol’s pastoralists to maintain amicable relations, after cattle raiders from Unity State’s Panyijiar County escalated raiding into Greater Yirol in 2017 and 2018 (Ryle and Amuom 2018, pp.77-81).

Despite the mutual interest in avoiding a return to generalised conflict, pastoralists from the Atuot community were alleged to have been involved in a number of raids into Awerial in recent years, including a raid in Bun-agok Payam in late 2021 which resulted in nine deaths (Radio Tamazuj 2021b). Relations between parts of the Aliab Dinka and the Mundari communities deteriorated in 2020 and 2021, amid reciprocal raiding in areas near to the border between Awerial and Terekeka. In early December 2020, an Aliab Dinka cattle camp in north-western Terekeka County was allegedly attacked by cattle raiders from the Mundari, killing seven Dinka pastoralists (Radio Tamazuj 2020). A group of Aliab Dinka youth were reported to have mobilised the following February in response, resulting in clashes that killed eight people and wounded four others (Eye Radio 2021). Although cattle raiding has continued sporadically in 2022 and 2023, the intensity of the violence has been lower than in the preceding years.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams listed in UN and government sources: Puluk (County HQ at Mingkaman), Abuyong, Bun-agok, Dor, Magok, Nile, Alel I, Alel II

Alternative list shared by local actors: Guol-Yar/Mingkaman (County HQ), Abuyong, Bun-agok, Dor, Magok, Nile, Alel

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

Roads:

• Awerial Town is connected by primary road to Yirol to the north-west and Juba (via Terekeka) at its south. The Logistics Cluster deemed this road passable during the dry season of 2023, though during the rainy season of 2022 the road was designated impassable between Yirol and Mingkaman, and “passable with difficulties” between Mingkaman and Terekeka (and thereafter passable to Juba).
• A tertiary road network covers parts of the north-west of the county, with one road running to Adior in Yirol East County. The condition of this road network is unknown.

 UNHAS-Recognized Heli Landing Sites and Airstrips: Mingkaman

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2015). Terekeka peace conference slated for Friday. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Eye Radio. (2021). 8 die in Terekeka ‘revenge’ cattle rustling. Retrieved 14 November 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.

IRNA. (2020). IRNA of communities affected by floods in Awerial County, Lakes State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Peace Agreements Database. (n.d.). Recommendations of the Terekeka Peace Conference. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2014a). Mass arrests in Awerial County after inter-clan clashes. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2015). Unemployed youths riot in Minkamen IDP camp. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2020). 7 people killed, 1 wounded during a cattle raid in Terekeka. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021a). ECSS Church in Awerial county torched, police suspect arson. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021b). Foiled cattle raid leaves 9 dead in Lakes. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2022). Lakes State: Police arrest 5 over church violence in Awerial. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023). 5 killed, 11 wounded in Awerial County clashes. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Ryle, J. and Amuom, M. (2018). Peace is the Name of Our Cattle-Camp. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2009a). 47 killed in tribal fighting as Dinka clash with Mundari in Lakes state. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2009b). Thousands displaced, 1 killed and 4 wounded in Awerial County. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2014). More than 30 rebels killed in Lakes on way to Unity state, official. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2023). 30 killed in Eastern Lakes state inter-communal fight. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

Wani Gore, P. (2014). The overlooked role of elites in African grassroots conflicts: A case study of the Dinka-Mundari-Bari conflict in Southern Sudan. Chr. Michelsen institute. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

REPORTS on AWERIAL

Quist, A. (2018). Human Security Survey 2018: Annual Summary Report Eastern Lakes State, South Sudan. PAX. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Quist, A. and Sliebi, A. (2023). Human Security Survey 2022 Annual Summary Report – Greater Yirol (Lakes State), South Sudan. Retrieved 2 November 2023.

Ryle, J. and Amuom, M. (2018). Peace is the Name of Our Cattle-Camp. Rift Valley Institute. 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.