Cueibet County, Lakes State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 117,755
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 296,844
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 111,782

Ethnic groups: Gok Dinka (Langdiing: Ayiel, Joth, Kongor, Pagook, Pathiang/Pathiong) (Macar: Akony, Panyar, Waat), ‘Jur Bel’/Belli

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 12,147 IDPs (-7,201 Q1 2020) and 9,016 returnees (+717 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

Cueibet County is located in Lakes State. It borders Rumbek North County to the north-east, Rumbek Centre County to the east, and Wulu County to the south. It also has borders with Warrap State (Tonj South and Tonj East Counties) to the west. The Bahr Gel River flows northwards through the county.

The county falls within two livelihood zones: the ironstone plateau agro-pastoral and Western floodplain sorghum and cattle (FEWSNET 2018). Cattle herding and subsistence farming are the predominant means of livelihood for Cueibet County residents. It was estimated in 2018 that 88% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018). This remains the case in figures from 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). Gross cereal yields for Cueibet County were at 1.1 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasing to 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Residents grow cereal such as maize and sorghum, and local vegetables such as kudra. The State Ministry of Agriculture reports the widespread use of ox-ploughs in the county, which allows residents to obtain higher crop yields when compared to hand cultivation (FAO 2020). The presence of the Bahr Gel River provides opportunities for fishing.

Local Cueibet leaders argue that cattle raiding and theft are thriving due to a reluctance from state and county government authorities to enforce punitive measures against perpetrators, the prevalence and access to small arms and light weapons and a lack of security service provision at local government levels. (Saferworld 2021).

Cueibet, like the rest of Lakes State, also experiences annual flooding. During the rainy season, parts of the county’s north (Tiaptiap, Pagor and Citcok payams) are cut off from the rest of the county as the nearby Bahr Gel River overflows, which can inhibit access to markets and trigger movements of pastoralist groups further south. In 2020, rains beginning in July brought flooding which led to massive crop failure and livestock death. In 2021, flooding was once again affected the county with OCHA identifying Cueibet as a county with at least 25,000 flood affected people and the Emergency Response Coordination Center identifying it as a flood affected county.

IPC projections put Cueibet 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.  The impact of inter-communal clashes on livelihoods is compounded by changing weather patterns in the county, which has led to long dry spells and lower crop yields.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The county headquarters is located in Cueibet Town in Cueibet Payam. The market at Cueibet town relies on commodities transported from Rumbek Centre, which serves as the main commodities market for most of Lakes State. This transport corridor is vulnerable to insecurity along the primary road that runs between Cueibet and Rumbek, including banditry. Market functionality has been further disrupted in recent years due to seasonal flooding, as well as flare ups of inter-sectional violence within and between Dinka clans and sections in Cueibet and the neighbouring counties of Rumbek Centre, Rumbek North, and Tonj South (the latter in Warrap State). These ‘tit-for-tat’ incidents have led to the destruction of homes and resources used to support livelihoods such as farming with criminal activity also disrupting the roads and market access.

Cueibet County is home to two (2) Early Childhood Development centres, ninety-two (92) primary schools and one (1) secondary school, Cueibet Secondary in Abiriu payam.

Cueibet County was reported to have fifteen (15) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among the health facilities, there are ten (10) PHCUs, three (3) PHCCs and two (2) hospitals as of 2022. This means that there were an estimated 0.82 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.82 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. The Cueibet County Hospital was reported to be moderately functional and the St. Josephine Bhakita Hospital was reported to have limited functionality

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, an estimated 111,872 people in Cueibet County have humanitarian needs (down from 116,300 in 2021). The number of people in need represents 60% of the estimated population of Cueibet County reported in the HNO.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

The primary source of insecurity in Cueibet is violence between different Dinka communities, which has affected every county of Lakes State but is particularly noted in Cueibet, Yirol West, Rumbek North, Rumbek East and Rumbek Central. There is an extremely high incidence of civilian-owned weapons despite some attempts at disarmament in the post-CPA period. Within Cueibet, there has been frequent conflict between the Waat and Panyar or the Waat and Ayiel sub-clans of the Gok Dinka clan. Communities have also been involved in cycles of attacks with neighboring communities. Notably, the Gok Dinka clan has been embroiled in a longstanding conflict with the Pakam of Rumbek North County. These conflicts over cattle appear to have pre-dated the most recent civil war. For example, community consultations carried out in 2012 documented the history of inter-communal violence, and cited cattle raids, border disputes, as well as tensions over access to grazing land and water sources as the primary reasons for insecurity in Cueibet (UNDP 2012). Flooding of the Bahr Gel River also displaces cattle camps and forces migration of herds into agricultural areas during the rainy season, which often leads to tensions with resident farmers as the animals may destroy crops. As a result, cattle herds have had to change their usual seasonal migration routes, and at times hide cattle away from permanent settlements to prevent looting. The segmentary lineage system of Dinka communities means that even small-scale, inter-household incidents of violence – whether related to livelihoods or honour – can rapidly escalate and spread to higher levels of social organization between villages, sections and clans.

However, the recent civil war has seen a continuation and potential escalation in violence in the county. Owing to the central location of Lakes State, many deserting soldiers crossed through Cueibet County travelling home from heavier fighting in Upper Nile and Jonglei States (REACH 2014). Furthermore, there has been tension between authorities across Lakes State and increasingly vocal youth. Beginning in 2014 and continuing to this day, this tension has driven thousands of young men away from cattle camps and into the bush, reportedly because they felt a lack of state-sanctioned justice for the victims of violence and conflict (REACH 2014).While the national-level conflict was generally concentrated in surrounding states, the interplay of inter-communal violence, cattle raiding and proximity to nearby loci of violence has exacerbated Cueibet’s susceptibility to violence and instability.

The level of violence spiked notably when 156 died in a series of raids and revenge attacks over three days in May 2014 (Sudan Tribune 2014). Additionally, in 2016 UNMISS supported a local peace conference for the area, however clashes and insecurity continued. CEPO documented numerous communal clashes from 2015-2019. In 2017, VOA reported that 40 people had been killed in clashes between Waat and Ayel communities, who had been engaged in cycles of revenge attacks since 2012. In this instance, soldiers were deployed to the area to maintain the security situation. In 2019, two state government officials were ambushed when travelling by road. In 2020, the media reported that 15 people had been killed in the county due to cattle raids and in July 2020 an aid worker traveling in a marked ambulance was ambushed and killed (Radio Tamazuj 2020, OCHA 2020). The majority of incidents continue to reflect patterns of cattle raiding and cycles of revenge killing among Dinka Gok sections and between Dinka Gok and Dinka Pakam.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams listed in Government and UN documents: Malou Pec (County HQ in Cueibet Town), Abiriu, Citcok, Ngap, Pagor
Additional payams listed by local actors: Cueibet (County HQ), Mayath, Tiaptiap

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

Roads:

  • A primary road cuts across Cueibet County roughly on a northwest/southeast axis, connecting the three main towns of Langdit, Cueibet and Abiriu, as well as Rumbek town to the east and Tonj (Warrap State) to the west of the county. The road was designated as being fully passable during both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023. However, the road closes with some regularity due to insecurity.
  • A secondary road runs north out of Langdit to Thiet town in Tonj South County (Warrap State). A secondary road also runs south of Cueibet into neighbouring Wulu County, as does a tertiary road further to the west. Seasonal road conditions are unknown.

UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: None

REFERENCES

CEPO. (2015). Lakes State Peace Conference Concluded. Retrieved 17 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.

IRNA. (2020). Wulu – Cueibet Counties, Lakes State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

OCHA. (2020). Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan condemns killing of an aid worker in Lakes and calls for an end to violence. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2020). 15 killed in fresh inter-clan clashes in Lakes. 21 May 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Saferworld. (2021). Contributing to people’s safety and peace in Cueibet, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2014). Death Toll Rises in Rumbek Clashes Between Pastoralists. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNDP. (2012). Community Consultation Report: Lakes State, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2021). Annual Brief on Violence Against Civilians. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

REPORTS on CUEIBET

AVSI. (2017). Conflict Mapping Survey: Cueibet County, Lakes, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

REACH. (2014). Conflict Analysis: Lakes, Northern Bahr El Gazhal and Warrap States. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Saferworld. (2023). Conflict, gender-based violence and mental health in Lakes State: Perspectives from South Sudan. 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.