Guit County, Unity State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 33,004
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 49,581
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 70,016

 Ethnic groups: Western Jikany Nuer (Gajaak/Chieng-Nyadukar, Gaguang, Thiang)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 23,193 IDPs (+20,543 Q1 2020) and 3,291 returnees (-12,906 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

Guit County is located in Unity State. It borders Koch County to the south and Rubkona County to the west. It also borders Pariang County in the Ruweng Administrative Area to the north and Jonglei State (Fangak County) to the east.

The county falls under the Nile-Sobat Rivers livelihood zone classification. The geography is characterized by lush green vegetation (including papyrus, reeds and elephant grass), black cotton soils and swamp/wetlands. The Bahr el-Ghazal River flows through the county’s north while the White Nile tracks the eastern side of the county and defines its border with Fangak County in Jonglei State. In 2014, the county experienced serious floods which destroyed crops and homes and led to major livestock deaths. Serious flooding also affected the county in 2021.

Residents mainly engage in agriculture (36%), livestock rearing (34%), and fishing (19%) for their livelihoods, according to an IOM assessment (IOM 2013). More recent figures from the FAO/WFP indicate that an estimated 40% of households in Guit County are engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 0.55 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), decreasing to 0.5 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). The crops grown include sorghum, maize, groundnut and cowpeas, with vegetables (such as okra, pumpkin, tomatoes) being cultivated on a smaller scale. In addition to cattle, goats and sheep are also reared. Herds migrate towards the White Nile between February and April and return to rainy-season pastures in May. The county’s two main rivers provide ample fishing resources year-round, and some small-scale commercial fishing was taking place (UNDP 2012). Wild foods such as laloub nuts, water lily and leau nuts are also accessible.

Guit County has historically experienced some of the highest levels of food insecurity in South Sudan. In 2015, IPC projections placed Guit at Catastrophic (IPC Phase 5) level of food insecurity and by 2017 the county was considered to be experiencing a famine. This has alleviated slightly since the stabilization of the area in 2018 and 2019, and a November 2022 projection the IPC placed the county as being at a crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until March 2023, whereupon they are predicted to decline to emergency levels (IPC level 4) between April and July 2023. As of November 2022, over 25% of households in Guit were predicted to meet between 25% and 50% of their caloric needs from humanitarian food assistance, though projections for December 2022 to July 2023 indicate that fewer than 25% will require humanitarian assistance during this time period. 

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

Guit was initially established as a county in 2005 and has its headquarters in Guit Payam. Poor road conditions in most payams means residents have difficulty accessing markets, despite the county’s location next to the main trunk road linking Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei and Lakes states. The rainy season typically makes many of the roads impassable, with some payams being cut off completely. Such incidents have prevented the regular access of aid organizations, heightening humanitarian needs in the area.

Guit County hosts the Mala oil field, in production from at least 2010 until the civil war forced a shutdown in 2014, although the quality of the crude oil is reportedly low. Oil production in Guit County has affected water quality, with a 2013 study by Signs of Hope indicating that unsafe oil production practices had contaminated water used by thousands of residents and made it unfit to drink (cited in HSBA 2015). Much of the surface water in the area is either contaminated by oil or ‘saltwater’ from drilling processes, and many villages in Guit County lack boreholes and access to clean drinking water. Before the oil companies withdrew, many of the villages sourced their drinking water from water tankers provided by oil companies.

Guit County is home to twenty (20) primary schools and Guit Secondary School in Kuach Payam. There are currently no Early Childhood Development centres in the county.

Guit County was reported to have thirteen (13) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among the health facilities, there are twelve (12) PHCUs and one (1) PHCCs as of 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.72 PHCUs per 15,000 people and .72 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Guit County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there are 49,624 people in need in Guit County (compared to 44,300 people in 2021), representing over 70% of the county’s projected population. Significant insecurity has led to numerous access restrictions for aid organizations, exacerbating humanitarian needs across the county.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

A predominantly Western Jikany Nuer area, Guit County was affected by fighting and forcible depopulation during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005). In the 1980s and 1990s, many Western Jikany Nuer were displaced following raids from Sudanese pastoralists aligned with the government in Khartoum, and after 1986 the government withdrew from present-day Guit amid escalating SPLM/A activity (Rone 2003, p.83, 107). Between 1998 and 2000, the area was affected by heavy fighting in Unity State’s oil fields. In Guit, this fighting involved an array of government, pro-government, and opposition forces, and was followed by government airstrikes in February 2002. The fighting heightened tensions between different Nuer clans in Unity State, and involved the destruction of numerous villages within Guit (Rone 2003; Johnson 2009). Since 2005, unclear border demarcation has also caused friction between Guit and neighbouring counties. This includes a dispute with Pariang County over the port at Manga/Minyang, in addition to a dispute with Rubkona County over the port at Mina. Tensions between the Western Jikany and Leek Nuer have also arisen regarding parts of Bentiu town that have expanded into western Guit County, which resulted in clashes in 2007 and 2008 (de Simone 2013, pp.51-52) and again in 2013 (Eye Radio 2013).

Guit County is the home county of senior politician Taban Deng and was on the frontline between government and opposition forces following the outbreak of fighting in December 2013. The Mala oilfield in southern Guit also made seizing control of the area a priority for both sides. The government made inroads into Guit during its 2014, 2015, and 2018 offensives, though the area remained in overall control of the SPLA-IO, with both sides making use of militia forces during the conflict (Craze et al. 2016; UNMISS/UN OHCHR 2018). The conflict’s impact on civilians was especially severe. The offensives of 2014 and 2015 led to significant destruction and displacement, with a UN assessment mission to Guit finding no standing or unburned dwellings between Bentiu and Guit (UN 2016, p.8). Amnesty International reported that individuals who fled violence in southern and central Unity consistently described government and non-uniformed forces, allegedly from Mayom’s Bul Nuer clan, participating in attacks on their villages (Amnesty International 2015).

Following the 2015 ARCSS, Guit County experienced division in the opposition camp after Taban Deng realigned his forces with the government in mid-2016. While some SPLA-IO Western Jikany commanders supported Taban Deng’s move, other commanders refused to give their backing (Small Arms Survey 2016). In late 2018 – and after the signing of the R-ARCSS – a significant increase in reports of sexual violence was observed in Rubkona and Guit counties in the context of increased military presence and tensions (UNMISS and OHCHR report 2019, p.4). Fighting was also reported in December 2018 between SPLA-IO and forces loyal to Taban Deng. At the start of December 2023, fighting between the SSPDF and SPLA-IO broke out in Guit County, with both sides accusing the other of instigating the attack (Radio Tamazuj 2023b). The fighting followed the defection of an IO commander to the SSPDF, and renewed violence in Leer (discussed in the profile for Leer County).

Guit has continued to be affected by localised violence, which is often linked to internal or cross-border cattle raiding. In the absence of effective justice systems, reprisal attacks have also proliferated. In recent years cattle raiding has often occurred with the Leek Nuer, and to a lesser extent with the Bul Nuer. There have been a number of inter-sectional clashes in Kuac that were sparked by an elopement in September 2022, and killed five people (Radio Tamazuj 2022b). Both the local government and peacebuilding organizations have had numerous peacebuilding dialogues with a view to curbing reprisal attacks, with a recent peace and reconciliation conference among the Western Jikany Nuer organised in Bentiu in the spring of 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023a). In May 2021, 11 police officers were killed in Guit as they pursued cattle raiders from Mayom County (UNSC 2021). Significant clashes involving armed pastoralists from Guit County and youths from Pariang were also reported in Nyeel Payam in February 2022, killing 23 people (Radio Tamazuj 2022a).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Guit (County HQ), Kedad/Kedet, Kuac, Kuerguini, Niemni, Nyathoar, Wathnyona

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

Roads:

• Guit County has one primary road, which runs on the vertical axis alongside its western border, connecting the county to neighbouring to Bentiu in Rubkona County and Leer town in Leer County. The road was deemed impassable during the both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
• A tertiary road in the Kuac area in the far south-west of the county connects the primary road to oil infrastructure. The condition of the road is unknown.
• A river route along the Bahr el-Ghazal River is served by Manga Port (ownership of which is disputed by Pariang County), which connects northern Unity State to the transport corridor along the River Nile.

 UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: None

REFERENCES

Amnesty International. (2015). ‘South Sudan: Escalation of violence points to failed regional and international action’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Craze, J., Tubiana, J., and Grammizi, C. (2016). A State of Disunity: Conflict Dynamics in Unity State, South Sudan, 2013–15. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 6 December 2023.

Eye Radio. (2013). Inter-clan clashes leave 7 dead in Unity state. Retrieved 14 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.

 FEWSNET. (2018). ‘Livelihoods Zone Map and Descriptions for the Republic of South Sudan (Updated)’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Human Rights Watch. (2015). ‘Widespread Atrocities in Government Offensive’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

OCHA. (2021). ‘Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2021’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2018). Deputy chief killed in Guit revenge attacks. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2022a). 23 killed as Unity, Ruweng youth clash. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2022b). Inter-clan fighting claims 5 lives in Unity State. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Jikany peace conference kicks off in Bentiu. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023b). SPLA-IO, pro-government forces trade accusations over Guit fighting. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2015). ‘The Conflict in Unity State: Describing events through 9 April 2015’. Archived text version available here. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2016). Legitimacy, Exclusion, and Power: Taban Deng Gai and the South Sudan Peace Process. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

2016. (2016). Crisis Impacts on Households in Unity State, South Sudan, 2014-2015 – Initial Results of a Survey, January 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

UNSC. (2021). Situation in South Sudan: Report of the Secretary-General, S/2021/566. Retrieved 21 December 2023.

UNMISS/UN OHCHR. (2018). Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Southern Unity: April-May 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

UNMISS/UN OHCHR. (2019). Conflict-related Sexual Violence in Northern Unity: September – December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

REPORTS on GUIT

CIVIC. (2016). ‘“Those Who Could Not Run, Died”: Civilian Perspectives on the Conflict in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Craze, J., Tubiana, J., & Gramizzi, C. (2016). ‘A state of disunity: Conflict dynamics in unity state, South Sudan, 2013-15’. Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

de Simone, S. (2013). ‘Post-Conflict Decentralization: Dynamics of Land and Power in Unity State – South Sudan’. UNISCI Discussion Papers No. 33. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Human Rights Watch. (2015). ‘“They Burned it All”: Destruction of Villages, Killings, and Sexual Violence in Unity State South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

IOM. (2013). ‘Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas – Guit’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNDP. (2012). ‘Community Consultation Report: Unity State, South Sudan’. No longer available online on 7 August 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.