Kajo-Keji

Kajo-Keji County, Central Equatoria State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 196,387

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 86,973

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 233,099

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 86,973

2024 IPC population estimate: 240,092

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 257,989

Ethnic groups: Kuku, Nyepo, Kakwa

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 15,728 IDPs (-7,405 Sept. 2023) and 38,695 returnees (+ 194 Sept. 2023)IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3)

Economy & Livelihoods

Kajo-Keji County is in Central Equatoria State. It is bordered by Juba County to the north, Lainya County to the west, Magwi County (Eastern Equatoria State) to the east, and Uganda to the south. The Nyiri mountains and hills in the county’s eastern part separate Kajo-Keji from the White Nile.

According to FEWSNET (2018), Kajo-Keji County lies within the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone. Subsistence farming (39%) and livestock rearing (39%) are the dominant livelihoods, with a small group also engaged in fishing (6%), according to a 2013 IOM assessment. The county has substantial arable land and strong potential for agricultural development. The most widely grown crops are cassava, sorghum, groundnuts, and maize. Conflict and insecurity since 2016 have significantly affected the county’s livelihoods and economic stability, increasing the population’s vulnerability.

IPC projections place Kajo-Keji County in a crisis (IPC level 3) in March 2025, with food insecurity expected to persist at that level until at least mid-2025. An estimated 50% of the county’s population engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 1.4 tonnes per hectare in 2021 and 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). A 2020 REACH assessment found that Kajo Keji residents were coping with food insecurity in various ways. In 32% of assessed settlements, residents reported coping with a lack of food by having only children eat; 18% reported consuming wild foods known to make people sick; and in 21% of settlements, residents reported their hunger to be severe or the worst it could be. In 21% of assessed settlements, residents reported having no physical access to a functioning market at the time of the assessment. This marks a significant change in food security levels since early 2016, when arable land, proximity to the international market, and the absence of large-scale violence had contributed to relatively low food insecurity in the county, which deteriorated upon the arrival of conflict. Since then, the area has been characterized by increased displacement, food insecurity, and decreased resilience. However, a 2022 REACH assessment showed a decrease in the severity of food insecurity across several indicators.

Infrastructure & Services

The headquarters of Kajo-Keji County is in Lire Payam. Prior to the outbreak of conflict in 2016, Kajo-Keji was considered a model county for its development and stability, with strong diaspora support for infrastructure and Kajo-Keji town hosting schools and healthcare facilities. Since the outbreak of conflict in 2016, much of the infrastructure has been damaged or abandoned and will require significant rehabilitation to adequately serve the population. In 2019, Kajo-Keji was highlighted as one of the key border towns in South Sudan targeted to receive access to electricity from a dam in Uganda, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The AfDB approved the South Sudan-Uganda Power Interconnection Project in 2024 (AFDB 2025; Construct Africa 2025).

Kajo Keji currently hosts eighty (80) Early Childhood Development centers, one hundred and thirteen (113) primary schools, and eighteen (18) secondary schools. 

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Kajo-keji County had fifty-one (51) health facilities, of which forty-seven (47) were functional (though 68% of the functional facilities reported limited functionality). These functional facilities included thirty-six (36) primary health care units (PHCUs), ten (10) primary health care centers (PHCCs), and one (1) hospital. This meant there were approximately 2.09 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.94 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, an estimated 147,800 people in Kajo-keji County are in need, representing approximately 57% of the county’s total population as reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that an estimated 54,346 people in Kajo-keji County were in need, of whom 29,655 were non-displaced, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. This figure is driven by high reported health, food security, and protection needs among the non-displaced population.

Kajo-Keji County was identified as among the most under-assessed locations in the country, in part because of terrain-related physical constraints, access challenges arising from violence, and bureaucratic impediments (OCHA 2021, p. 84).

Conflict Dynamics

Conflict dynamics in Kajo-Keji County have historically and increasingly been intertwined with those of northern Uganda, particularly Moyo District in the latter’s Northern Region. During the second Sudanese civil war, the town of Kajo-Keji changed hands multiple times between the SAF and SPLM/A, and in the mid-1990s it served as the SPLA Tactical Headquarters, while the area hosted the West Nile Bank Front – a now-defunct Ugandan armed opposition group supported by the Sudanese government – during the mid-1990s (HRW 1995; Madut-Arop 2006, p.313; Africa Confidential 1997). As a result, much of Kajo-Keji’s predominantly Kuku population was displaced into northern Uganda (where many remain to this day), while members of the Madi community residing in Uganda have been displaced into Kajo-Keji during times of conflict in Moyo (Leonardi and Santschi 2016, pp.18-19).

Although this displacement has provided an opportunity to deepen the close and long-established social, familial, and economic ties between the Kuku/Kakwa and the Madi, the associated movement has also brought competition over resources and administrative areas. In particular, a dispute over the ambiguous border between South Sudan and Uganda rapidly escalated into displacement and cross-border attacks between the two communities in September 2014, after a Ugandan census team and a local official were arrested by South Sudanese security forces (Leonardi and Santschi 2016, p. 42). These events have contributed to a hardening of ethnic identities, while reports of incursions along the common border have continued to drive tensions in the area, most recently in 2023 (Eye Radio 2023b; Eye Radio 2023c) and again in February 2024 (Eye Radio 2024). The governments of South Sudan and Uganda agreed in 2024 to demarcate the border in 2027 (Eye Radio 2024b).

The county has since been the site of periodic tensions between established communities from Kajo-Keji and returnees on the one hand, and SPLA soldiers and predominantly Dinka IDPs on the other (Fegley 2009). In 2008, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) activity was reported in Kajo-Keji, including an alleged massacre by LRA forces in early February. The massacre was variously reported to have killed between 4 and 141 people, with the lower estimate being provided by the SPLA. Both the identity of the attackers and the true casualty figures remain unknown, though reports indicated that South Sudanese authorities had downplayed the incident’s severity due to alleged involvement by disgruntled soldiers and ongoing peace mediation with the LRA in Juba (Schomerus 2021, Ch. 7).

Tensions have also increased between the local community and Dinka Bor pastoralists, escalating as the national conflict spread to the county since 2016 (discussed below). In March 2021, eight people were killed by unknown pastoralists near the Ugandan border (VOA 2021). In February 2023, following escalating tensions and attacks between local residents and Dinka Bor pastoralists, at least 27 people from both communities were killed in two attacks (Eye Radio 2023a; UNMISS 2023; UN Panel of Experts 2023). Approximately 19,750 people were reported to have been displaced as a result of the violence (Protection Cluster 2023).

While Kajo-Keji was largely spared the large-scale violence of the national conflict in 2013, it was significantly affected by the second wave of violence that spread from Juba in 2016. Following several months of tension and low-level violence, fighting erupted in Kajo-Keji in June 2016 when suspected opposition forces attacked an SSPDF barracks, reportedly killing dozens (Sudan Tribune 2016). After the attack, the government launched a counter-insurgency campaign in the area that contributed to the displacement of a significant portion of the county’s population to Uganda (UN HRC 2018). Human Rights Watch documented 47 alleged civilian killings during this violence in Kajo-Keji County between June 2016 and May 2017, including indiscriminate shootings of civilians in markets and several cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention of children (HRW 2017). Soldiers and, mostly, Dinka cattle keepers allegedly looted possessions, including livestock, as they occupied areas deserted by civilian populations (HRW 2017). Meanwhile, SPLA-IO forces had established a presence in Kangapo II and Liwolo payams to the west of the county. The UN Human Rights Council (2018, p. 8) also reported abuses by the SPLA-IO against the civilian population (including torture, theft, and sexual violence) after the outbreak of hostilities. The establishment of the National Salvation Front (NAS) in March 2017, a predominantly Equatorian rebellion, split the population between those supporting the SPLA-IO and those supporting NAS. By October 2017, NAS was fighting both the SPLA and SPLA-IO in Kajo Keji, with intermittent fighting between the SPLA-IO and NAS and more limited skirmishes against government forces over the subsequent two years. Meanwhile, clashes between the military and SPLA-IO continued into 2018, briefly escalating in September as the R-ARCSS was being finalized. Between September and December 2020, serious clashes were reported in the Mangalotore area between the SPLA-IO and forces loyal to a commander who had defected to the military on September 21 (UN Panel of Experts 2020, p. 14). Relations between communities and security forces deteriorated amid SSPDF counter-insurgency efforts. Relations between the local population and the SSPDF were further strained following the alleged killing of three civilians by SSPDF soldiers in May 2022, as reported by CTSAMVM and Human Rights Watch (2023). County officials sought to ease tensions by freeing civilian prisoners accused of rebellion and minor offenses. Tensions escalated again in early 2025 with an NAS attack on SSPDF positions in Kongapo Two, which resulted in the deaths of two children, the destruction of villages around SSPDF barracks, and displacement.

Administration & Logistics 

Payams: Lire (County Headquarters), Kangapo I, Kangapo II, Liwolo, Nyepo

UN OCHA 2020 map of Kajo-KejiCounty: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-kajo-keji-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads from Kajo-Keji town:

  • A primary road running northward to Juba County was deemed “passable” during the dry seasons of 2022 and 2025 and “passable with difficulties” during the rainy seasons of 2023 and 2024. The condition of the primary road southward to Uganda is passable, according to local actors.
  • The road conditions on the primary road running west to Yei County are unknown.
  • A secondary road runs east toward Eastern Equatoria State, with the closest town, Pageri, in Magwi County. Road conditions are unknown.

In late 2021, road conditions in Kajo-Keji County were so poor that Chamber of Commerce representatives reported that no goods were coming to Kajo-Keji via Juba because of the poor road conditions, and cited transport conditions as a major factor driving high commodity prices (Radio Tamazuj, 2021).UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: Kajo-Keji

References

AFDB. (2025). African Development Fund approves financing of $153.66 million for electricity interconnection project. Retrieved 24 March 2025.

Africa Confidential. (1997). Museveni’s backyard. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Construct Africa. (2025). Uganda-South Sudan Interconnector Project Planned For 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2025.

Eye Radio. (2023a). Update: 27 confirmed dead in Kajo-Keji violence. Retrieved 20 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023b). Woman killed, 3 abducted by Ugandan army in Kajo-Keji – MPs. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023c). Kajo-Keji Chief calls for reopening of Uganda-South Sudan border. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Eye Radio. (2024a). Uganda’s army trespasses into Kajo-Keji again, says local official. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Eye Radio. (2024b). Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda hold 4thtripartite boundary committee meeting. Retrieved 24 February 2025.

HRW. (1995). Human Rights Watch World Report 1995 – Sudan. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

HRW. (2017). “Soldiers Assume We Are Rebels”Escalating Violence and Abuses in South Sudan’s Equatorias. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

HRW. (2022). South Sudan: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas. Retrieved 21 July 2023.

Leonardi, C. and Santcshi, M. (2016). Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: Boundary disputes and land governance. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Protection Cluster. (2023). Kajo-Keji County/Central Equatoria State Protection Response February 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Residents of Kajo-keji complain of rising commodity prices. 29 October 2021.  Retrieved 13 July 2023.

REACH. (2020). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile – Kajo-keji County. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

REACH. (2022). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profiles. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Schomerus, M. (2021). The Lord’s Resistance Army: Violence and Peacemaking in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sudan Tribune. (2016). Rival forces clash in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

UN Human Rights Council. (2018). Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, A/HRC/37/71. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

UNMISS. (2023). UNMISS strongly condemns deadly violence in Kajo-Keji Central Equatoria State. Retrieved 20 July 2023.

UN Panel of Experts. (2020). Interim report of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan submitted

pursuant to resolution 2521 (2020). Retrieved 17 October 2023.

UN Panel of Experts. (2023). Final report of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan submitted pursuant to resolution 2633 (2022). Retrieved 20 July 2023.

VOA. (19 March 2021). 8 Killed in Suspected South Sudan Revenge Attack. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Reports on Kajo-Keji

Fegley, R. (2009). Local Needs and Agency Conflict: A Case Study of Kajo Keji County, South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Global Rights Compliance. (2022). No Choice but to Flee: Starvation and Displacement in Central Equatoria, South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Human Rights Watch. (2017). “Soldiers Assume We Are Rebels”Escalating Violence and Abuses in South Sudan’s Equatorias. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Ladu, J. L. C., Athiba, A. L., Demetry, P. L., & Babi, M. L. A. (2019). ‘Environmental Impact Assessment of a Proposed Small-Scale Cement Mining Operations in Kigwo Boma, Kangapo 1 Payam, Kajokeji County, Central Equatoria State, Republic of South Sudan’. Environmental Sciences, 7(2), 66-73. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Leonardi, C. and Santcshi, M. (2016). Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: Boundary disputes and land governance. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Leonardi, C. (2007). ‘The Poison in the Ink Bottle: Poison cases and the moral economy of knowledge in 1930s Equatoria, Sudan’. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1 (1), pp. 34-56. Retrieved 3 November 2023.

Leonardi, C. (2020). Patchwork States: The Localization of State Territoriality on the South Sudan-Uganda Border, 1914-2014. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Malo, M.O., Ladu, J.L.C., Mukeka, J., & Gweyi-Onyango, J. (2024). Cattle population and attributed grazing intensities in Central Equatorial, South Sudan. International Journal of Livestock Production, 15(2), 7–14. Retrieved 8 March 2025.

The New Humanitarian. (2017). The war in Equatoria: A rare look inside South Sudan’s spreading conflict. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2019). Conflict-related Violations and Abuses in Central Equatoria, September 2018—April 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2023.* Note: The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Population Estimation Survey (PES), published in April 2023, is based on data collected in May-June 2021. It uses a different method from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Population Working Group (PWG) figures, which are 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 actual population numbers over time, and have been disputed by some civil society actors and analysts. Although the latter 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 are being used as the basis for the Common Operational Dataset (COD) for the UN system for the HNO 2024 and likely beyond. For further details on this and other sources used in the county profiles, see the accompanying Methodological Note.