Duk County, Jonglei State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 65,588
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 56,186
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 199,416

Ethnic groups: Dinka Bor (Hol/Ghol: Angaach, Duoor, Nyieel, and Pathel; Nyarweng: Ager, Athon/Aborom)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 24,790 IDPs (+2,599 Q1 2020) and 5,157 returnees (-32,030 Q1 2020)

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

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Duk County is located on the western edge of Jonglei State. It borders Ayod County to the north, Uror County to the east, Twic East County to the south, and Panyijiar County (Unity State) to the west. The Nile River flows along the county’s western border and is a major transport artery and source of irrigation. The western half of Duk County is defined by the presence of several rivers, lakes, and marshland, including the White Nile. The area immediately around the Nile is characterized by swampy vegetation of papyrus, reeds, Napier/elephant grass and bush scrub. Low flood-plains define the eastern part of the county.

The county is part of the eastern plains, sorghum and cattle livelihood zones (FEWSNET 2018).  The main livelihood activities in these areas include agriculture, rearing livestock, fishing and foraging for wild foods. A 2018 report from FAO and WFP estimated that 35% of the county’s households engage in agriculture, which increased slightly to 38% by 2021. Gross cereal yields were reported at 0.5 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasingly to 0.6 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). The main crops grown are sorghum, maize, groundnut and cowpeas. The high availability of water sources in the county makes it an ideal area for cattle herders to migrate to, or to use as a transit point when moving their herds to other areas. Livestock normally migrate towards the Nile between February to April and return to homesteads from May to June. There is a traditional livestock migration from Ayod County into the Sudd wetlands of Duk County. Seasonal floods pose a significant livelihood hazard as they can limit fishing activities and reduce crops, livestock, and wild foods production. Additionally, cattle raids, livestock diseases, crop pests and drought are major factors affecting livelihoods.

IPC projections for Bor South County are at Crisis levels (IPC Phase 3) of food insecurity as of November 2022, and are projected to remain at Crisis levels until March 2023, and to deteriorate to Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels between April and July 2023. Moreover, 25% of households in the county meet 25-50% of their caloric needs through humanitarian assistance. Food insecurity has been significantly exacerbated by severe floods since October 2019.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county headquarters are located at Duk Padiet town in Padiek/Padiet Payam. The high number of waterways in Duk County make it prone to annual flooding, which impacts local infrastructure; in particular, flooding of the airstrip can severely restrict access for humanitarian agencies.

Duk county is currently home to two (2) Early Childhood Development centres, twenty-three (23) primary schools and two (2) secondary schools, Padiet Secondary of Padiet Payam and Payuel Secondary of Ageer Payam.

Duk County was reported to have nineteen (19) health facilities including eighteen (18) functional health facilities, among them twelve (12) PHCUs, five (5) PHCCs and one (1) hospital in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 0.90 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.00 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. The functionality of the Payuel Lost Boys County Hospital was not reported.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, over 127,600 people in the county have humanitarian needs (a marked decrease from 174,800 in 2021), which represents nearly 64% of the projected population reported in the HNO. This includes some of the highest rates of shelter and NFI, healthcare, and protection needs in the country, as well as sustained food insecurity.

The movement of large numbers of IDPs to Duk County has placed strain on the minimal infrastructure and services in the area including both the institutional health and educational services as well as the localized social protection and support systems (Humphrey et al. 2019). The large number of returnees in the area over recent years has also placed further pressure on existing infrastructure, services, and local food supplies. However, the widespread flooding in Duk County and elsewhere in Jonglei since 2020 has reversed this trend, with significant reductions in the numbers of returnees and increases in displacement as residents of Duk seek shelter in neighbouring counties and states.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Duk County – as with neighbouring Twic East County – is a majority Dinka county that has worked to maintain stable relationships with neighbouring Nuer communities. In 2014, the International Crisis Group reported that connections between Dinka and Nuer communities were thought to be among the strongest in the country due to local initiatives to preserve peace, intermarriage, and interdependence between the two communities to support livelihoods. Despite such efforts, conflict between Dinka and Nuer communities has been reported in Duk County during times of national turbulence, alongside efforts at upholding cooperation. For more information on how these relationships were affected during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), please see the profiles for Ayod, Nyirol, Uror, and Twic East counties.

During the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) era (2005-2011), Duk County was affected by cross-border violence, often involving tensions with communities from neighbouring Uror County (Sudan Tribune 2008; Sudan Tribune 2009). This included a large-scale attack on Duk Padiet by militia allegedly from Uror in 2009 (UN News 2009; Harrigan 2011, pp.35-37). A border dispute between Uror and Duk counties also escalated in November 2013 (Sudan Tribune 2013). However, despite periodic tensions, relations with parts of northern Jonglei’s Nuer communities and those of Duk County also experienced improvements in the run-up to and during the early stages of the CPA, as is discussed further in the profile for Ayod County.

In addition to relations between the Dinka communities of Duk and neighbouring Nuer clans, communities from Duk have had periods of acrimonious relations with parts of the Murle community of Pibor County. Deteriorations have typically followed raids that have been attributed to the Murle. The tendency of communities in and around Jonglei State to attribute cattle raids and abductions to the Murle is discussed further in the profile for Pibor County. After independence in 2011, a serious raid into Duk County by an alleged militia from Pibor County resulted in mass displacement and a significant loss of life (Sudan Tribune 2012).Duk also experienced fighting between government forces and opposition forces commanded by George Athor in early 2011 (Sudan Tribune 2011), contextual details for which can be found in the profile for Canal/Pigi County.

Following the outbreak of the recent national conflict in December 2013, Duk County was primarily under opposition control, with some eastern areas under government control. As a result of the interrelationship between the Dinka and Nuer communities in the area, the SPLA-IO and Nuer white armies largely bypassed Duk and Twic East Counties in December 2013 as they advanced towards Bor town and onto Juba. After the government retook Bor town in late January 2014, the SPLA (with Ugandan military support) pushed north towards Ayod, which led to the displacement of Duk residents to Bor, Twic East, Lakes State and other locations.

Violence was also reported in Duk following the abduction of the county’s paramount chief by opposition forces in February 2014, reportedly resulted in dozens of people being killed or injured (Sudan Tribune 2014). One month later, alleged Gawaar Nuer and opposition elements attacked Duk County, in reaction to further reports of the targeting of Nuer by the SPLA in Juba, while the SPLA-IO seized Duk town and several other settlements in the county (Eye Radio 2014). Thousands were displaced from Duk to Twic East or to the swamps in western parts of the county as a result of this violence. Intermittent low-level clashes followed in the remainder of 2014 and 2015, whilst major fighting between government and opposition forces were reported in Pajut in August 2016. During this fighting, the SPLA consolidated control of the area amid reports that at least 250 people were killed during a botched assault on SPLA defensive positions by SPLA-IO forces and affiliated militia (Eye Radio 2016; Radio Tamazuj 2016).

Tensions as well as subnational violence have been reported periodically in Duk County, while clashes in neighbouring counties have also forced IDPs to flee to the area. Within Duk, tensions between customary authorities and government in Duk Padiet town have taken place over a number of years. This is reflected in disputes over the appointment of the Duk County Commissioner in 2018 and late 2021.

As indicated above, cross-border violence involving militias from predominantly Dinka areas of south-eastern Jonglei (including Duk) and Pibor has affected relations among Jonglei’s communities. A number of serious raids on Duk have been reported since South Sudan’s independence, while militias from Duk are also alleged to have participated in large-scale attacks into the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), including during the national conflict (Sudan Tribune 2016). In addition to the 2012 raid noted above, a similar raid in November 2017 resulted in further loss of life (Sudan Tribune 2017). By 2020, insecurity had once more deteriorated significantly in the county, with nearly 40 people killed in Duk Padiet in an incident in July 2020 (Radio Tamazuj 2020), with significant flare-ups of subnational violence between Murle and Nuer communities also being reported throughout a number of areas of Jonglei. Between January and August 2020, renewed conflict involving alleged Dinka, Nuer and Murle organized forces and community-based militias led to the killing and wounding of at least 1,058 people (UNMISS/OHCHR 2021). Cattle raiding, looting and destruction of private and public property (including humanitarian facilities), was also documented in many of these incidents.

Instances of large-scale subnational violence have been punctuated by efforts at negotiating peace between the communities in question. In 2017, a community peace dialogue event was held by local chiefs, with support from UNDP, to attempt to put a stop to clashes. In 2019, an “open security forum” was held with stakeholders from the region, with support from UNMISS, to achieve similar objectives. Meanwhile, in early 2021 some progress was made in bringing together Murle, Lou Nuer and Dinka Bor communities as part of the Pieri peace process to avoid a re-escalation of conflict, with the return of abducted children seen as a significant step forward in building trust between communities. However, the location of Duk County as a transit point between the Gawaar Nuer and Murle communities left it vulnerable to attacks between these communities despite the local peace process, though Dinka communities from Duk have largely resisted pressure to join these attacks.

However, these efforts by the government and international partners to address subnational violence in Jonglei in 2021 have had mixed success overall. Attacks and cattle raiding have continued in spite of the agreement, with raids in the Duk Padiet area in March and May 2022 killing several dozen people. Large-scale fighting resumed In December 2022 and January 2023 with renewed raids by alleged Dinka and Nuer militia into Pibor County, with at least 308 people reported killed and nearly 300 people abducted (UNMISS/HRD 2023), as is discussed further in the profile for Pibor County. In early 2024, a cattle raid by an alleged group from the GPAA into Duk County reportedly 28 people and wounded others (Eye Radio 2024; Radio Tamazuj 2024).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Padiek/Padiet (County Headquarters), Ageer, Dongchak, Pagak, Panyang, Payuel

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

Roads:

• A primary road runs north-south through Duk County, connecting Bor town in the south to Canal town (in Canal/Pigi County) to the north. To the road was deemed impassable between Bor town and the junction at Ayod County in both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023. The condition of the remaining parts of the road running north from the junction to Canal are unknown.
• A secondary road connects Duk Padiet town to Waat town (in Nyirol County), via Yuai in Uror County. The entirety of the road was deemed impassable in the rainy season of 2022, though the road was deemed “passable with difficulty” between Duk Padiet and Yuai town during the dry season of 2023, though was deemed impassable on the final stretch of the road to Waat.
• A tertiary road travels north-east from Duk Padiet town to Ayod town. The condition of the road is unknown.

UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Duk Padiet, Duk Poktap

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2014). SPLA admits losing Duk to Dr Riek’s forces. Retrieved 2 October 2023.

Eye Radio. (2016). Details of Duk attack emerge: 280 killed. Retrieved 2 October 2023.

Eye Radio. (2024). Death toll in Duk attack rises to 28: Commissioner. Retrieved 7 January 2024.

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.

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

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2016). Fighting in Jonglei kills at least 250. Retrieved 2 October 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2020). 38 killed in fresh attack in Duk County. Retrieved 2 October 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Jonglei police detain 8 chiefs over commissioners saga. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2024). Duk attack death toll rises to 24. Retrieved 7 January 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2008). SPLA kill 5 cattle raiders in Jonglei’s Duk. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2009). 7 people kill in Jonglei’s Duk. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2011). Jonglei: SPLA clash with rebel group in Duk Padiet. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2012). Jonglei: Death toll in Duk attack rises to 80 as UN warns of hate messages. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2013). Duk county youth protest against alleged Jonglei land grab. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2014). Paramount Chief of Jonglei’s Duk county detained by rebels. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2016). Four injured, hundreds of cattle stolen in Jonglei’s Duk county. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

Sudan Tribune. (2017). Rights body condemns tribal attack in Jonglei state. Retrieved 2 October 2023.

UN News. (2009). Another deadly attack on village in southern Sudan draws anger from UN. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

UNMISS/HRD. (2023). Brief on Violence Affecting Civilians: January – March 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2023.

UNMISS/OHCHR. (2021). Armed Violence Involving Community-Based Militia in Greater Jonglei: January-August 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

REPORTS on DUK

Beswick, S. (2004). Sudan’s Blood Memory: The Legacy of War, Ethnicity, and Slavery in South Sudan. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.

Harrigan, S. (2011). South Sudan: Waiting for Peace to Come. Study from Bor, Twic East & Duk Counties in Jonglei. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Humphrey, A., Krishnan, V., & Krystalli, R. (2019). The Currency of Connections: Why local support systems are integral to helping people recover in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Quist, A. (2022). Human Security Survey: Summary findings from Jonglei State, South Sudan. PAX. 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.