Kapoeta East

Kapoeta East County, Eastern Equatoria State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 163,997

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 319,112

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 169,978

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 319,113

2024 IPC population estimate: 175,078

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 175,078

Ethnic groups: Toposa, Nyangatom**, and Jiye/Jie

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 1,720 IDPs (-1,562 Sept. 2023) and 675 returnees ( -1,075 Sept. 2023)

IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4); April to July 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4)

Economy & Livelihoods

Kapoeta East County is located in Eastern Equatoria State. It borders Kapoeta North County, Kapoeta South County and Budi County to the west and Jonglei State (Pibor County) to the north. It also borders Ethiopia to the east and Kenya to the south, with the extreme south-west border of Kapoeta East also bordering Uganda.

The county falls within the south-eastern semi-arid pastoral livelihood zone. The Toposa people are primarily cattle-keepers, but also herd sheep and goats. Subsistence farming is also practiced, but on a smaller scale compared to other counties in the state – with one study estimating that about 54% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018). The same estimate was reported in data from 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). In 2021, gross cereal yields were estimated to be 0.85 tonnes per hectare, increasing to 0.9 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Some cereal production takes place, mainly sorghum, but on a limited scale.

While the border towns in Kapoeta East County are less significant for trade than those in Kapoeta Town (Kapoeta South County) or Torit (Torit County), the Nadapal/Narus border crossing links South Sudan to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and has played a historically strategic role both for the government in its border dispute with Kenya and for the humanitarian community as an entry point for Operation Lifeline Sudan in the 1990s.

Food insecurity has remained at Crisis (Phase 3) fairly constantly in Kapoeta East between 2016 to 2022. In November 2024, the IPC projected the county as being at a crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity, with conditions projected to deteriorate to emergency levels (IPC level 4) between December 2024and July 2025. A 2020 REACH assessment found residents in 32% of assessed settlements were coping with a lack of food by going days without food and residents in 72% of settlements described the hunger they were experiencing as severe or the worst it can be. 51% of assessed settlements were home to residents who were selling livestock to cope with food insecurity and 65% of settlements reported livestock disease as present. A 2022 REACH assessment noted improvements in these indicators, with 27% of assessed settlements describing hunger as severe. However, settlements reported an increase in the selling of livestock to offset food insecurity, which rose to 86%. Since December 2022, the Jie community of Kapoeta East has been suffering from food insecurity resulting from severe drought, forcing people to migrate in search of food and water (Radio Tamazuj 2023a).

Infrastructure & Services

Kapoeta East is the county with the second largest population in Eastern Equatoria State (second only to Magwi County) and has its headquarters at Narus near the border with Kenya. In February 2021, telecommunications company MTN resumed operations in Kapoeta East after nearly eight years of being off-air due to insecurity. Kapoeta East also hosts the Kuron Peace Village, which was founded in 2005 by Bishop Taban Paride. The aim of the project was to create a diverse community that promoted peace building, and sought to address the needs of local communities through education, agriculture and other services. It has hosted gatherings of traditional leaders, including a three-day meeting in April 2016 of seventeen chiefs from different parts of South Sudan to reflect on their changing role in peacemaking and the political transition.

Kapoeta East is home to twenty-six (26) Early Childhood Development centres, twenty-six (26) primary schools and four (4) secondary schools including the all-girls St. Bakhita Secondary and the all-boys St. Patrick’s Secondary. All four secondary schools are located in Narus Payam. A 2014 assessment in Kapoeta East also revealed that the county had one of the lowest enrolment rates of girls in primary school in the state, attributed to pressure to engage in child marriage.

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Kapoeta East County had twenty-four (24) health facilities, of which sixteen (16) were functional. These functional facilities included ten (10) primary health care units (PHCUs), six (6) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and no hospitals. This means there were approximately 0.86 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.71 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 113,801 people in need in Kapoeta East County, which represents approximately 65% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 161,866 people in need in Kapoeta East County, of whom 158,315 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees.

Conflict Dynamics

Although Kapoeta East has been relatively insulated from the direct effects of the Sudanese and South Sudanese civil wars, the county headquarters of Narus was an epicentre for conflict and displacement at several points in the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005). Narus served as an SPLM/A administrative base and recruitment area following its capture by the movement in 1988, which followed intense fighting that began in 1985 (van Leeuwen 2004, p.35; Walraet 2011, p.10). Narus also served as a transit point for displaced persons after Kapoeta town was captured from the SPLM/A by the Sudanese government in May 1992, due to its proximity to the logistics and humanitarian hub at Lokichogio in northern Kenya (HRW 1993). The town was held by the SPLM/A until the end of the war in 2005, though was bombed on several occasions by the Sudanese Airforce. Despite the close association of the area with the SPLM/A, tensions and intermittent low-level conflict – including over land – were reported between parts of the local Toposa community and the SPLM/A during the war. As with other areas of Eastern Equatoria, disputes relating to land took on an ethnic inflection – in this case due to many of the SPLM/A forces stationed in Narus being from the Dinka community – touching on sensitive questions of ethnic belonging and local residency (van Leeuwen 2004, pp.36-38). Tensions were often eased following the interventions of the Diocese of Torit (which relocated to Narus in 1992) and the Sudanese Women’s Voice of Peace NGO. As is noted below, Kapoeta East was also affected by cross-border conflicts during the second civil war, notably along the disputed border with Kenya.

The major threats to people’s livelihoods in Greater Kapoeta (Kapoeta North, South and East) are cattle raiding, armed banditry and persistent droughts. Community consultations carried out in 2012 found that competition over water, a lack of healthcare and poor education were compounding threats to security in the county (UNDP 2012). They also noted longstanding tension between the Toposa and Murle in Jonglei to the north. Much of the southern border of Kapoeta East County (including the Ilemi Triangle, discussed below) is disputed with Kenya, with such disputes overlapping and connecting with tensions and raiding between the Toposa and Turkana pastoralists from northern Kenya (UNDP 2020). However, co-operation between communities – particularly during times of scarcity – is also present in the disputed Ilemi Triangle, as is cross-border peacemaking (Snel and de Vries 2022, pp.23-25).

In addition to the Toposa, the Nyangatom** community are based in the Ilemi Triangle and parts of Nyangatom woreda of Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoeple’s Region. They have historically close and co-operative relations with the Toposa, and reportedly have positive relations with the Murle. However, once co-operative relations between the Nyangatom and the Turkana communities have steadily worsened over a number of decades – in part due to tensions over the status of the Ilemi Triangle, alongside unresolved localised conflicts – while relations with the Nyangatom and their neighbours on the Ethiopian side of the border are uneven, with some reportedly marked by recurrent conflicts, in particular between parts of the Nyangatom and Dassanech communities (Ynitso 2012, pp.355-359; Snel and de Vries 2022). To the north of the county, the Jiye/Jie have had stretches of both peaceful and acrimonious relations with parts of the Toposa (Simonse 2000, p.51, Ynitso 2012, p.357), while relations between parts of the Jiye/Jie and the Murle have been characterised in recent decades by fluctuating levels of conflict (Simonse 2000, p.52-53), as is discussed further in the profile for Pibor County. Inter-clan conflicts have also been reported among parts of the Jiye/Jie (UNMISS 2019). As noted above, the Kuron Peace Village was established to promote peace among communities from the area, including the Toposa, Murle, and Jiye/Jie (Angu 2021).

With the outbreak of the national conflict in 2013, many people fled from South Sudan back to Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, transiting through Kapoeta East and using the Narus border crossing. While the area was largely spared from fighting between the belligerents, road banditry has affected the crucial link between Kapoeta and Narus/Nadapal border crossing.

A significant portion of Kapoeta East County falls within the Ilemi Triangle, which is an area claimed by both Kenya and South Sudan, and has been used by pastoralists from the Turkana, Nyangatom, and Toposa communities. The size of the disputed area ranges between 4,000 and 5,400 square miles (Collins 2005), with a number of revisions among British colonial officials from Kenya and Sudan accounting for the varying sizes of the area (Winter 2019). The dispute dates back to a (partial) attempt at delineating the tri-border area between Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya by British colonial authorities which was partially completed in 1914, and was later subject to informal adjustments in recognition that the 1914 line did not fully take into account grazing areas used by Turkana pastoralists. Escalating cattle raiding resulted in both colonial-era and post-independence Kenyan security forces gradually deploying to outposts further north into the Triangle, at times with the tacit agreement of Sudanese authorities, who had refrained from developing an administrative or security presence in the area (Winter 2019).

The Toposa and Turkana have a history of inter-marriage, which has formed the basis for negotiating agreements over grazing areas and resolving cases of cattle theft (Johnson 2010, p.96). However, during the 1980s and 1990s the spread of firearms and the increasing severity of both internal and cross-border cattle raiding has placed these relations under strain, while contentious deployments of the Kenyan military has been associated with displacement from the Ilemi Triangle (Johnson 2010, p.99).

While small-scale clashes between Toposa and Turkana pastoralists have occurred, the discovery of oil in nearby Turkana County in Kenya has raised the stakes of territorial claims. As of 2021, both the Kenyan and South Sudanese governments offered bidding on distinct oil blocks in the disputed area, though given the absence of proven oil reserves and infrastructure needed for producing and transporting oil from the area, oil production is unlikely in the short term (Snel and de Vries 2022, p.26). However, the area has reportedly been a site of historical alluvial gold panning (Johson 2010, p.99). In 2016, South Sudan and Kenya established a Joint Border Commission and appointed a Joint Technical Team to resolve the border dispute, however to date no resolution has been established. This process was given new life in mid-2019 with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between Kenyan and South Sudanese governments, though progress on demarcating the border is limited (Snel and de Vries 2022).

In addition to the Ilemi Triangle, the area around Nadapal town is disputed by South Sudan and Kenya. The Nadapal area – which lies to the south-west of Kapoeta East, and is outside of the Ilemi Triangle – has been a focal point of sporadic conflict and raiding for several decades. Conflict involving groups of Turkana and Toposa pastoralists escalated in the late 1990s in the context of the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), though a reconciliation meeting was held in 2002. The same year, with the approval of the Kenyan government, the SPLM/A established a customs and immigration checkpoint at Nadapal (Eulenberger 2009, p.41). Nadapal served as the SPLM/A border checkpoint after 2002, though the status of Nadapal became an international issue between Kenya and the regional government of Southern Sudan following two incidents in 2009 (Eulenberger 2013; Winter 2019, pp.51-53). Since February 2023, Kapoeta East has experienced renewed cross-border conflict involving Toposa and Turkana pastoralists in the Nadapal area (Radio Tamazuj 2023b), resulting in demonstrations by South Sudanese residents of the area against the presence of Kenyan forces (Eye Radio 2023). In a meeting between Eastern Equatoria State officials and their Kenyan counterparts in May 2023, both parties agreed to enhance security provision in the border area and exchange military attaches, as they await the completion of the ongoing border demarcation (Radio Tamazuj 2023c).

Administration & Logistics 

Payams: Narus (County Headquarters), Jie, Katodori, Kauto, Lotimor, Mogos, Natinga

Alternative list of payams provided by local actors: Katodori, Kauto, Koron, Lotimor, Mogos, Narus, Moragebe, Lyoro, Lekawtem, and Lopet

UN OCHA 2020 map of Kapoeta East County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-kapoeta-east-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

  • A primary load links Kapoeta town to the disputed town of Nadapal along the Kenyan border. The road was deemed passable in both the rainy season of 2024 and the dry season of 2025.
  • A secondary road connects Narus to Boma in Pibor County (Jonglei State) to its north, running via Kuron Peace Village. In both the rainy season of 2024 and dry season of 2024, the road was designated as being impassable.
  • Two secondary roads run in parallel in western areas of the county (one of which begins in Kapoeta town), close to the border with Kapoeta North County. The two roads meet at Mogos before separating again, and eventually become a tertiary road to Pibor County. At Kassangor (along the border between Kapoeta East and Pibor counties), the road splits once again, running north-west to Pibor town and north-east to Boma. The road between Kapoeta town and Boma town was deemed impassible in the wet season of 2024 and the dry season of 2025. The condition of other parts of the road network are unknown.

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

Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Kuron and Lotimor

References

Angu, S. ‘The Role of Kuron Peace Village in Promoting Social Cohesion and Peaceful Co-existence in South Sudan’, Journal of Sociology, Psychology & Religious Studies, 3(1), pp. 138-154. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Collins, R.O. (2005). ‘The Ilemi Triangle’, Annales d’Ethiopie (20), 5-12. Retrieved 22 September 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023). EES parliament warns against ‘Kenyan encroachment’ in Nadapal. Retrieved 20 September 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.

HRW, Human Rights Watch. (1993). Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan. Retrieved 22 September 2023.

Johnson, D.H. (2010). When Boundaries Become Borders: The impact of boundary-making in Southern Sudan’s frontier zones. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 28 February 2024.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Drought and hunger drive the Jie out of their homes. Retrieved 20 September 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023b). Kenya deploys army to restive area bordering South Sudan. Retrieved 20 September 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023c). Talks underway over ‘Nadapal border issue’. Retrieved 20 September 2023.

REACH. (2020). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile – Kapoeta East County. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

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

Simonse, S. 2000. Conflicts and Peace Initiative in East Bank Equatoria, South Sudan: 1992-1999 (draft). Pax Christi. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive on 19 January 2024.

UNICEF (2023). Humanitarian Situation Report No.2, reporting period 1-28 Feb. Retrieved 22 August 2023.

UNDP. (2012). Community Consultation Report: Eastern Equatoria State. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

UNDP. (2020). Greater Kapoeta Conflict and Gender Assessment. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2019). Jie clans embrace peace for development at an intra-communal forum in Kassengor. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Van Leeuwen, M. (2004). Local Initiatives For Peace In Southern Sudan And The Support Given To Those By Outsiders. Retrieved via the Sudan Open Archive 14 March 2024.

VOA. (2021). South Sudan Road Attacks Leave Nearly 30 Dead. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Walraet, A. (2011). Displacement in Post-War Southern Sudan: Survival and Accumulation within Urban Perimeters. MICROCON/IDS. Retrieved 14 March 2024.

Winter, P. (2019). A Border Too Far: The Ilemi Triangle Yesterday and Today. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Ynisto, G. (2012). ‘Inter-Ateker discord: The case of the Nyangatom and the Turkana’ in Gebrehiwot, M. and Buthera, J.B. (eds.) Climate Change and Pastoralism: Traditional Coping Mechanisms and Conflict in the Horn of Africa, pp.351-374. Addis Ababa: Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University, and University for Peace. Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Reports on Kapoeta East 

AVSI. (2019). Field assessment in Greater Kapoeta East County. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

AVSI. (2024). Enhancing Food Security and Education through School Gardening: A Report on AVSI Foundation’s Initiatives in Kapoeta East and South Counties, South Sudan. Retrieved 28 February 2024.

Eulenberger, I. (2009). Report on the Peace and Reconciliation Emergency Dialogue between Toposa and Turkana Elites of Sudan and Kenya at St. Teresa Community Centre, Lodwar, Kenya, 31 October to 1 November 2009. Nairobi: Africa Peace Forum & PACT Kenya. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Eulenberger, I. (2013). ‘Pastoralists, Conflicts, and Politics: Aspects of South Sudan’s Kenyan Frontier’, in Vaughan, C., Schomerus, M. and de Vries, L. (eds.) The Borderlands of South Sudan: Authority and Identity in Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, pp 67–88. Ney York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Eulenberger, I. (2015). ‘Gifts, Guns and Govvermen: South Sudan and its Southeast’, in Calkins, S., Ille, E. and Rotennburg, R. (eds.) Emerging Orders in the Sudans, pp.153-196. Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa Research & Publishing.

Lotyam, M. (2019). The Ilemi Triangle: Shadows of the Four Lines on the Grassland. ELFSS blog. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Mc Evoy, C. and Murray, M. (2008). Gauging Fear and Insecurity: Perspectives on Armed Violence in Eastern Equatoria and Turkana North. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Saferworld (2020). ‘Like the military of the village’: Security, justice and community defence groups in south-east South Sudan. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Snel, E. and de Vries, L. (2022). The Ilemi Triangle: Understanding a pastoralist border area. Pax Christi International. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

UNDP. (2020). Greater Kapoeta Conflict and Gender Assessment. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Winter, P. (2019). A Border Too Far: The Ilemi Triangle Yesterday and Today. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Wunder, L. and Mkutu, K. (2018). ‘Policing Where the State is Distant: Community Policing in Kuron, South Sudan’ in Security Governance in East Africa: Pictures of Policing from the Ground, Lexington Books: London.

* 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: The ‘Nyangatom’ of Kapoeta East are also known as the ‘Donyiro’ in Kenya and (pejoratively) as the ‘Bume’ in Ethiopia (Winter 2019, p.17). As these names are not commonly used by the group itself or elsewhere in South Sudan, this profile uses the term ‘Nyangatom’ alone.