Koch County, Unity State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 74,863
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 55,477
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 98,851

Ethnic groups: Jagey/Jagei Nuer

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 16,348 IDPs (+2,968 Q1 2020) and 10,662 returnees (-6,991 Q1 2020)

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

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Koch County is located in Unity State. It borders Mayom County to the north-west, Rubkona County to the north, Guity County to the north-east and Mayendit County to the south. It also borders Jonglei State (Fangak and Ayod Counties) to the east and Warrap State (Tonj North County) to the west. The River Nile flows northwards along the county’s eastern border with Jonglei State.

The eastern half of Koch County belongs to the Nile-Sobat Rivers livelihood zone and western half falls under the Western Flood Plains zone. Koch County mainly consists of flat floodplains with a mix of savannah grassland, bushes and forest. In western Koch, the soil is mostly black clay, with black cotton soil dominating the eastern region of the county. Both types of soil are suitable for cultivating a variety of crops.

The main crops cultivated are maize, sorghum, groundnuts, cowpeas, beans, sesame (simsim), millet, cassava and pumpkin. Many families also maintain subsistence vegetable gardens in the dry season, growing kudhura, okra, onion, tomatoes and eggplant. Sorghum is the staple crop in most areas, except for the payams of Koch and Buaw, where maize is the primary staple. An estimated 45% of households in Koch County engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 0.85 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), decreasing to 0.8 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Some residents also gather wild fruits and vegetables (amaranths, spider flower, moringa leaves, etc.) and fish to supplement their diets. Trade in firewood, charcoal, grass, milk and brewing alcohol were also reported as key supplementary livelihood activities.

Koch County was considered one of the most food insecure counties in the country even before the onset of the 2013 crisis. In a normal year, harvests would reportedly last a household roughly four months with flooding during the rainy season a common impediment to agricultural activities. Following the depletion of household stocks, around June, residents are generally heavily dependent on the market for foodstuffs and basic resources. A FEWSNET report from 2018 noted that due to the lack of cultivation resulting from insecurity, more people were turning to wild foods to supplement their diet during the conflict. This cyclic dynamic has persisted from 2016 to 2020. Since then, humanitarian interventions in the area have alleviated some of the needs that resulted from sustained insecurity in the county. In November 2022, the IPC projected the county as being at emergency (IPC level 4) levels of food insecurity, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until at least July 2023.

In August 2020, Koch County experienced significant flooding affecting up to 11,600 people. Flooding and displacement continued to affect populations throughout 2020. and in 2021 the Emergency Response Coordination Centre named Koch as a flood-affected county along with six other Unity State counties.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The county HQ is located in Koch town in Kuachlual payam. Systemic insecurity has compounded a lack of development; the poor quality of roods in the county, particularly during the rainy season, has created constant access issues, with some parts of the county completely isolated during periods of heavy rain.

Koch County is an oil-producing part of Unity State. Its main oil field, Thar Jath (which also straddles part of Mayendit) began production in late 2006. By 2013 the field was producing up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day, according to the South Sudanese government. However, many locals say they have not seen the financial benefits of this oil wealth. Likely owing to the importance of oil to the national economy, the area is heavily militarized and there is a large SPLA base in Thar Jath. Additionally, oil pollution has contaminated both the land and water in the area.

Koch is home to forty-one (41) primary schools and two (2) secondary schools. There are currently no Early Childhood Development centres in the county. Schools have been impacted by successive rounds of conflict and a shortage of teachers given many younger men were afraid of being recruited and fled from Koch to Bentiu PoC or other areas for safety.

Koch County was reported to have fourteen (14) health facilities including eight (8) functional health facilities, among them five (5) PHCUs and three (3) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 0.76 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.52 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported to currently be operating in Koch County. A hospital which was funded by an oil company was shut down in 2012, limiting healthcare services in the county to PHCU and PHCC level services in recent years.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, Koch County has 80,099 people with humanitarian needs (up from 67,400 in 2021), which is equivalent to approximately 81% of the total projected population of Koch County reported in the HNO. In 2021 OCHA identified Koch as one of six counties falling into the catastrophic category of GBV risk based on nationwide FSMNS+ assessment data.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Cattle raiding between Koch residents and communities in neighboring Rubkona and Mayom Counties, as well as within communities in Koch, is a longstanding driver of conflict, and has been exacerbated by displacement and environmental conflict due to the establishment of the Thar Jath oil field. The Jagey Nuer have been historic rivals of the Bul Nuer and Lek Nuer from neighbouring Mayom and Rubkona Counties. Incidents of cattle raiding in Koch were tied to the macro political conflict, with armed youth from Koch County acting as proxies to the different parties to the conflict.

Koch County was the site of major fighting between government and opposition forces following the outbreak of civil war in 2013, with significant troop movement and set-piece engagements. Although no side ever gained definitive control over the area, it was an important base of SPLA-IO support. The SPLA were unable to completely dislodge opposition forces from Koch County, and the tactics used by armed forces were different than previous conflicts – with IDPs fleeing to the swamps and bush areas continuing to be targeted, resulting in multiple layers of displacement. UNMAS continues to cite significant proliferation of explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the county, which continue to pose a protection concern.

Notably, Koch youth (mostly from the Jagey Nuer clan) also aligned with the SPLA periodically during the conflict, including by participating in government sweeps of opposition-controlled regions, which began in April 2015. These allegiances were often opportunistic and focused on local issues (i.e. the belief that by aligning with the SPLA, the youth would have greater access to cattle and spoils of war), rather than national level political considerations. Control over these armed youth groups was tenuous, making Koch one of the most unstable and inaccessible regions in the county for humanitarian groups. A Danish Demining Group (DDG) report from mid-2017 asserted that the youth were being led by the local politicians and had been supplied weapons by various armed factions. The report also documented the cycle of cattle raids and revenge attacks, and the use of child soldiers. The fighting had devastating consequences for the civilian population as forces from both sides were accused of targeting and directly attacking civilians in Koch. An estimated 1,300 women and girls were raped and 1,600 women and children were abducted in Koch County in 2016, according a mid-2016 Protection Cluster report. While these events were significant, incidences of S/GBV remain a serious concern in Koch County.

In 2019, UNMISS facilitated a peace and reconciliation conference in the county, to further support at the county level for the implementation of the national peace agreement reached in 2018. Peacekeeping forces have also been rehabilitating roads in the area, to support access for humanitarian aid and allow for trade routes to resume. Additionally, UNMISS also set up a temporary mission in Koch in early 2020 to encourage and facilitate returns to the area.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Kuachlual (County Headquarters), Boaw, Gany, Jaak, Norbor, Ngony, Pakur

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

Roads:

• Koch’s main transport link is a primary road running through the Thar Jath oil facility and eventually connecting the county to Bentiu (the state capital) to its north and Rupkaui in Mayendit County at its south. The road was deemed impassable during the both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023. A spur of the road connects to Koch town in the centre of the county; conditions for this road are unknown.
• There is a short secondary road segment near Mir Mir town, the conditions of which are unknown.
• The river route along the Nile from Bor to northern Unity State passes through the eastern side of Koch County, with the county being served by a port at Nyaroump.

UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Koch and Boaw.
Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Thar Jath, Again and Biir.

REFERENCES

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

Danish Demining Group. (2017). ‘Dynamics of Youth and Violence: Findings from Rubkona County, Unity State’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2021). ‘Floods displace over 1,500 in Koch County of Unity State’. Retrieved 16 July 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.

International Rescue Committee. (2014). ‘Assessment Report: Koch County, Unity State’, 10 Sept 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

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

Protection Cluster. (2016). ‘Protection Situation in Southern and Central Unity: September-October 2015’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2021). ‘MAAPSS Update 25 March 2021 Unity State: New appointments and developments’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

REPORTS on KOCH

Deng, D. (2021). ‘Land Governance and the Conflict in South Sudan’. LSE Conflict Research Programme. 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.

Hutchinson, S. and Pendle, N. (2015). ‘Violence, legitimacy and prophecy: Nuer struggles with uncertainty in South Sudan’, in American Ethnologist, 42:3, pp.415-430. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

International Crisis Group. (2017). ‘Instruments of Pain (II): Conflict and Famine in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Pendle, N. and Wal, G. (2021). ‘Law, War and Returns: Learning from South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Pragst, F., et al. (2017). ‘High concentrations of lead and barium in hair of the rural population caused by water pollution in the Thar Jath oilfields in South Sudan’, in Forensic Science International, Vol. 274, pp.99-106. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNMISS /OHCHR. (2022). ‘Attacks against civilians in southern Unity State, South Sudan February – May 2022’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNMISS /OHCHR. (2018). ‘Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Southern Unity, April-May 2018’. Retrieved 16 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.