Ikotos

Ikotos/Ikwoto County, Eastern Equatoria State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 84,649

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 61,228

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 107,047

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 61,229

2024 IPC population estimate: 110,258

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 111,148

Ethnic groups:

Logir, Lokwa (Lokwaa), Dongotono, Imotong, Ketebo, and Lorwama (collectively known as “Lango”)**

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 6,336 IDPs (-2,039 Sept. 2023) and 11,533 returnees ( -3,517 Sept. 2023)

IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2025 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2025 – Crisis (Phase 3)

Economy & Livelihoods

Ikotos County – also known locally as Ikwoto County – is located in Eastern Equatoria State. It borders Torit County to the north-west, Budi County to the north-east, and has a narrow border with Magwi County to the west. It also has a border with Uganda to the south. The Imatong Mountains run from Torit in the north through Ikotos County towards Uganda, and contain the highest elevation in South Sudan. Historically, Ikotos’ forests were expansive, however this has reduced in recent years. This has occurred in part to deforestation, as the natural resources are often extracted without regulation, and transported across the Ugandan border for sale.

The county is categorized as being in the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). A report from 2018 estimated that 80% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018) with the same estimate being reported in data from 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). In 2021, gross cereal yields were estimated to be 1.15 tonnes per hectare, increasing to 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Farmers in the area cultivate a variety of crops including millet, cassava, sweet potatoes, onions, cabbage, maize, tobacco and sorghum.

Forestry was previously a viable livelihood; however, the depletion of the resource has lowered the viability of this option as an income-generating activity compared to forested areas in other parts of South Sudan. Cattle-rearing is also a primary livelihood among the Lango communities in Ikotos. Sustained insecurity in the area since the 1980s, from multiple sources, had inhibited economic development and stability. Poverty and unemployment continue to be challenges, particularly for male youth who resort to cattle raiding to obtain food and cattle for dowries. Additionally, insecurity has prevented long-term cultivation, and limited the importing of goods to supply the local markets.

The IPC projected the county as being at a crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity in November 2024, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until July 2025.

Infrastructure & Services

The county headquarters are located in Ikotos Town, in Ikotos Payam..

Ikotos County is home to twelve () Early Childhood Development centers, fifty-eight (58) primary schools and eight (8) secondary schools.

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Ikotos County had twenty-eight (28) health facilities, of which twenty-eight (28) were functional. These functional facilities included twenty-three (23) primary health care units (PHCUs), four (4) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and one (1) hospital. This means there were approximately 3.1 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.8 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time, which ranks Ikotos as among the ten counties with the highest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. St. Theresa Isohe Mission Hospital was reported to be moderately functional.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 44,416 people in need in Ikotos County, which represents approximately 40% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 31,254 people in need in Ikotos County, of whom 22,338 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. Water points are insufficient, forcing women to travel long distances to obtain water for their households and hindering health outcomes in the county. Access to mobile phone networks in Ikotos County has also been a challenge for residents, with all networks being suspended in 2016 following clashes with government forces.

Conflict Dynamics

Historically, communal clashes between different sub-groups of Lango and with neighboring groups, such as Lotuko, Toposa, Didinga and Boya have been observed in Ikotos County. These have primarily revolved around land and water sources for agriculture and cattle grazing during the dry season. These clashes also include cattle raids – that have reportedly increased in the post-CPA period as the bride price inflated and demand for cattle rose (Ochan 2007). Most conflict over land and grazing happens at Kidepo valley, an area with all-seasons water and green pasture, which is a major attraction for pastoralists.

The introduction of SPLA forces and other armed factions into the area in the 1980s and the county’s proximity to Uganda led to the increased militarization and mobilization of communities, increasing levels of violence between communities as well as drawing the area into broader conflicts. During the Sudanese civil wars, farmers in Ikotos struggled to maintain their crops. Markets in the area were also poorly supplied due to insecure roads, and high poverty rates meant that many people could not afford the goods available. As a result, raiding other communities – such as the Lotuko of Torit County – for cattle became more frequent. High unemployment rates also contribute to banditry in the area. The combination of intercommunal violence, divisions within the SPLA, increasing banditry and attacks from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and local defense forces raised in response to conflict led to an increase in mortality rates and looting across the state in the years running up to South Sudan’s independence in 2011, despite local peace initiatives. These factors also limited the access of humanitarian workers operating in the area in the 2000s.

Similarly, during the 2013 civil war, historical divisions between the SPLA and Equatorian communities led to the formation of opposition forces in the area with active hostilities occurring as the civil war expanded from 2015 onwards. Conflict between government forces and other armed groups – during which SPLA barracks were allegedly stormed by youth – led to displacement in late 2015 (Eye Radio 2015). Continued clashes in 2016 led to the destruction of homes and looting of livestock in Ikotos County, and increasing humanitarian needs in the area. According to Small Arms Survey, Ikotos County has experienced a re-intensification of fighting and a proliferation of armed groups and criminality since the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018. This intensification may both reflect and have contributed to the fragmentation of SPLA-IO and a range of other military, police and armed groups in the area, and contributed to the defection of high-profile politicians from the area in August 2021 (SAS 2021).

Communal clashes as a result of cattle raiding have also been observed more recently in Ikotos County, even crossing the border at times to conduct raids on the Ugandan side of the border in 2018. In 2021, feuding between members of the Lowara-Talla and Ikotos Central communities led to fatalities. The conflict affected relations between Ikotos’ communities, slowed down the local economy and made life difficult for traders fearing to travel between marketplaces (UNMISS 2021).

Administration & Logistics 

Payams: Ikotos (County Headquarters), Hatire, Imotong, Lomohidang North, Lomohidang South, Losite

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

Roads:

  • One primary road runs north out of Ikotos town to Hiyala village (Torit County), eventually connecting to the Torit-Kapoeta road. The road was designated as being passable during the 2024 rainy season and 2025 dry season.
  • There is a secondary road running east to Chukudum town (via Kidepo) and another running south to the border with Uganda (via Mosingo). Conditions on these roads are unknown.
  • A tertiary road network covers parts of northern Ikotos County. The condition of this network is unknown.

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

References

Eye Radio. (2015). Two killed in SPLA clashes with civilians in Ikotos. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2018). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2023). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 31 July 2023.

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

Muniru, J. (2019). Sociolinguistic assessment of Lango, Imotong, Logir, Okolie (Lorwama and Ketebo) and Dongotono speech varieties of Torit State, South Sudan: A summary of findings. SIL South Sudan.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2022). Ikotos County political leaders resolve to end violence. Retrieved 12 March 2025.

Small Arms Survey. (2021). MAAPSS UPDATE 13 September 2021 SPLA-IO Split What’s new in the SPLA-IO? Retrieved 14 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2021). Community Leaders from Ikotos, Eastern Equatoria, highlight need for dialogue and reconciliation. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Reports on Ikotos 

Daniel, R. (2018). Generating Sustainable Livelihoods and Leadership for Peace in South Sudan: Lessons from the Ground. Centre for Conflict Resolution. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Hodgkin, E. (2022). Letters from Isohe: Life on the edge in a school in South Sudan. London: City of Words.

Ngalamu, T., Subed, A., van Uffelen, G-J. (2021). Seed system resilience assessment in Ikwoto County,South Sudan: Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (REPRO) South Sudan Programme. Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation. Retrieved 11 March 2025.

Ochan, C. (2007). Responding to Violence in Ikotos County, South Sudan: Government and Local Efforts to Restore Order. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Simonse, S. (1992/2017). Kings of Disaster: Dualism, Centralism and the Scapegoat King in Southeastern Sudan. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

Small Arms Survey/HSBA. (2010). Symptoms and causes: insecurity and underdevelopment

in Eastern Equatoria. Retrieved 14 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.

** Note: “Lango” is a supra-ethic (or umbrella) term used to refer to Logir, Lokwa, Dongotono, Imotong, Ketebo, and Lorwama, collectively. A sociolinguistic assessment carried out by the Summer Institute of Linguistics reported that speakers said they had agreed to use “Lango” as an overarching term to identify themselves during South Sudan’s liberation struggle (Muniru 2019). Like other places in South Sudan, the terms used by residents identify themselves shift over time with efforts to resolve disputes and changing political claims, administrative units, and perceptions of linguistic and social proximity. As a result, the terms used by residents of Ikotos County to refer to themselves comprehensively and as sub-groups may change over time and vary among communities within the region (see Radio Tamazuj 2022).