Lafon County, Eastern Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 106,161
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 85,212
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 157,151

Ethnic groups: Pari, Lopit, Tennet and Lotuko (Loming)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 17,551 IDPs (+2,677 Q1 2020) and 8,715 returnees (-2,293 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Lafon County is located in the north-western corner of Eastern Equatoria State. It borders Kapoeta North County to the east, Budi County to the south-east and Torit County to the south. It also borders Central Equatoria State (Juba and Terekeka Counties) to the west and Jonglei State (Bor South and Pibor Counties) to the north.

The county is categorized as being in the eastern plains sorghum and cattle livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). Residents of Lafon County practice agriculture, animal husbandry (cattle, goat and sheep), fishing and hunting as their primary livelihoods. In 2018 it was estimated that 85% 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 1.0 tonne per hectare, decreasing to 0.9 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Common crops in the county include sorghum, okra, sesame, cowpeas and tobacco. However, farming and fishing livelihoods are usually engaged with at or below subsistence levels. As a result, many households also rely on markets to meet their food needs.

There has been little change in IPC classification since 2016 as Lafon County continues to be categorized at Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels of food insecurity as of November 2022, and is predicted to remain at Crisis levels through mid-2023. While in previous years Lafon County’s crop yields have been affected by droughts in the area, in 2019 its livelihoods were impacted by unusually heavy rainfalls that led to flooding. Flooding continued to affect Lafon throughout 2020 and 2021 to a moderate extent. Ongoing communal clashes for several years in the area have also inhibited farmers from cultivating, which has impacted local food supplies, and making the population more reliant on markets and food distributions. However, the insecurity and financial crisis worsened by the civil war have made supplies in the markets sporadic.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The governance of Lafon was highly contested around the time of independence in 2011. The County Headquarters was previously based at Imehejek but disputes between the Pari and Lopit led to the creation of two administrative areas called ‘Lafon Corridor’ – run by a County Commissioner – and ‘Imehejek Corridor’ – administered by an Executive Director reporting directly to the State Governor. This dispute is discussed in more detail under conflict dynamics below. On 20 July 2023, the Governor decreed that a new ‘Imehejek Administrative Area’ was to be established in the eastern (Lopit) area of Lafon County, which would report directly to the Governor’s office (Radio Tamazuj 2023). This followed suggestions to rename the county as ‘Lopa’ and subsequent lobbying by elements of the Lopit community for a new county in early 2023. The legality and implications of the move for the 2018 peace agreement remain to be determined.

Lafon County is home to the Mura Lopit Pre-primary school, the only Early Childcare development center in the county. Lafon is also home to thirty-seven (37) primary schools. There are no secondary schools currently operating in the county.

Lafon County was reported to have twenty-eight (28) health facilities including twenty-seven (27) functional health facilities, among them twenty-four (24) PHCUs, two (2) PHCCs and one (1) hospital in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 2.20 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.64 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. Imehejek County Hospital was reported to have moderate functionality.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, around 79,487 people in the county have humanitarian needs (up from 54,700 in 2021). This figure represents over 50% of the estimated population for Lafon County reported in the HNO.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Communal clashes, cattle raiding and highway banditry are the primary security threats in this region. During the dry season herds from Budi and Kapoeta North Counties to the south-east frequently travel to the flood plains of Lopa/Lafon for grazing, making the area prone to conflict. In addition, historically the sedentary Pari tribe tended to clash with arriving Lopa herds in the county’s south. Due to remoteness, in more recent years the county faces a lot of cases of child abductions, which are allegedly committed by neighbouring Murle and Toposa groups.

These tensions have been reflected in a longstanding dispute over appropriate name and governance of Lopa/Lafon County that escalated following an attempt to rename the county from ‘Lopa/Lafon’ to ‘Lafon County’ in 2009. The name ‘Lafon’ is used mostly by the Pari community living in the west of the county. However, some members of the Lopit community living mostly in the east of the county feel the name ‘Lafon’ favours the Pari community’s claim to the area. The contested location of the county headquarters also reflects this dispute. It was previously based at Imehejek in an area populated largely by the Lopit community, but the decision to locate a Pari-associated county headquarters in an area associated with the Lopit and associated appointment of a County Commissioner was contested. This dispute between the Pari and Lopit led to creation of two administrative areas called ‘Lafon Corridor’ (reflecting Pari claims) and ‘Imehejek Corridor’ (reflecting Lopit claims) in an attempt to reconcile competing claims. Some members of the Lopit and other communities have proposed that the name ‘Lopa’ is a more inclusive alternative name that reflects the presence of both Lopit (‘Lo’) and Pari (‘Pa’) communities. While some government and UN documents still use the name ‘Lafon’, other government documents have adopted the name ‘Lopa’.

The outbreak of the civil war in Juba in December 2013 led to mass displacement of residents fleeing conflict to neighboring counties, including Lopa/Lafon. Approximately 1,472 IDPs arrived in Lopa/Lafon County in early January 2014, many of them wives and children of SPLA soldiers (IRNA 2014). In August 2016 the conflict spread from Juba to Lopa/Lafon County. The increasing presence of armed factions, and the clashes that followed, led to the displacement of the majority of the population of Lafon Town during this period (OCHA, 2016). Forced recruitment practices were alleged, and the conflict also had an impact on local infrastructure and services due to looting and the destruction of property.

The area had been relatively stable in terms of security following the signing of the R-ARCISS in 2018. However, community leaders from the county reported that thousands of armed men allegedly from Jonglei had attacked villages – including Tennet communities around Arilo/Arihilo payam – in July 2020 (Eye Radio 2020). This highlights the potential for escalating conflict between communities from Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area to spill over into Lopa/Lafon County.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Arihilo, Burgilo, Imehejek (County Headquarters**), Kurumi, Lohutok, Longiro, Marguna, Pachidi

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

Roads:

• A secondary road connecting Juba and Lafon town was deemed impassable during both the rainy and dry season of 2022 and 2023, respectively. The same road heads south to Torit town has, and was designated “passable with difficulties” during the same time period.
• A secondary road runs between Lafon and the far east of Torit County via Imehejek town. This road branches off from the Lafon-Torit road about 20km south-east of Lafon town, at the start of the Lopit Hills. The condition of the road is unknown.

UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: None
Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Lafon, Arilo/Lomorotok, Iboni, and Lokutok

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2020). Armed Jonglei youth ‘terrorize’ Lopa-Lafon. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2021). Lopa-Lafon communities agree to end 17-year dispute. Retrieved 14 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 10 July 2023.

IRNA. (2014). Initial Rapid Needs Assessment Report for Internally Displaced population in Lafon County. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Lopit, Toposa to embrace peaceful co-existence. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023). Governor Lobong declares Imehejek an ‘Administrative Area’. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Schomerus, M. and Allen, T. (2010). Southern Sudan at odds with itself: Dynamics of conflict and predicaments of peace. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

REPORTS on LAFON

Kurimoto, E. (1998). ‘Resonance of Age Systems in Southeastern Sudan’ in Kurimoto, E. and Simonse, S. (eds.) Conflict, Age & Power in North East Africa: 29-50. Oxford: James Currey.

Kurimoto, E. (1994). ‘Civil War & Regional Conflicts: The Pari and their Neighbours in South-eastern Sudan’ in Fukui, K. and Markakis, J. (eds) Ethnicity & Conflict in the Horn of Africa, 95-111. London: James Currey.

OCHA. (2016). Inter-agency Rapid Needs Assessment Report: Lafon, Eastern Equatoria (1-3 December 2016). Retrieved 14 July 2023.

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

* 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: As noted in the conflict dynamics section, considerable complexity surrounds the administrative arrangements for Lafon County (Schomerus and Allen 2010, p.43), though it was reaffirmed in 2021 that Imehejek would remain the de jure administrative headquarters for Lafon (Eye Radio 2021). Following the announcement by the state Governor in July 2023 that a new Imehejek Administrative Area was to be established in the eastern side of the county, there has not been an official announcement regarding any potential relocation of Lafon County’s administrative headquarters to the western area of the county.