Lainya County, Central Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 89,315
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 82,153
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 113,928

Ethnic groups: Pajulu/Pojulu

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 21,668 IDPs (-13,370 Q1 2020) and 25,789 returnees (-2,570 Q1 2020)

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

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Lainya County is located in Central Equatoria State. It borders Juba County to the north-east, Kajo-Keji County to the south-east, Morobo County to the south-west, and Yei County to the west. It also has narrow borders with Mundri West (Western Equatoria State) to the north-west and Uganda to the south.

According to FEWSNET (2018), Lainya County falls within the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone. Lainya County is primarily, and has historically been, an agricultural area. An estimated 43% of households in Lainya County engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2021 and 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). However, as a result of insecurity and displacement, residents do not have safe and consistent access to their land during times of planting and harvesting. This has resulted in one of the largest reductions of harvested areas observed in South Sudan following the outbreak of conflict in 2016. Additionally, the migration of cattle keepers from other parts of the country (primarily Mundari from Terekeka, Dinka from Awerial and Jonglei) to Lainya have contributed to the destruction of crops and localized conflict.

Lainya County is known for its forests – especially teak – which has provided a financial resource for opposition groups operating in the area. As a result, residents that have either owned land with forests, or otherwise engaged in forestry as their livelihood, have also lost access to this source of livelihoods. Further compounding this is the fact that South Sudan lacks re-forestation programs, leading to the depletion of this natural resource for future generations as well. However, informal employment for logging companies as loggers, loaders and truckers has provided a significant number of jobs for mostly men in Lainya County. Hunting, fishing and raising of livestock are also documented as livelihoods practiced by the residents of the area. However, logging has undermined some of these more traditional livelihoods given local communities’ dependence on forests for building materials, firewood, food and medicinal resources (SSCOC & POF 2020). Lainya has experienced deforestation as a result of teak production especially in and around the Loka Forest Reserve.

The IPC projected the county as being at a crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity in November 2022, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until at least mid-2023.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county’s headquarters are located in Lainya Payam. Lainya County does not have major urban centers; however, it does have a main market area located along the Juba-Yei road, which has traffic from trade as well as public transport. Insecurity, and a lack of access during times of conflict, has restricted the activities of aid organizations in the area.

Lainya County is home to six (6) early childhood development centers and eight (8) primary schools. There is one secondary school in Lainya County.

Lainya County was reported to have twenty-two (22) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among the health facilities are fourteen (14) PHCUs and eight (8) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.85 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 3.52 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Lainya County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there are an estimated 72,500 people with humanitarian needs in Lainya County (down from 93,500 in 2021), which is approximately 64% of the estimated population for Lainya County reported in the HNO. Over 70% of those with needs in Lainya are IDPs or returnees. OCHA highlights Lainya as one of the counties with the highest level of recorded explosive contamination with landmine and ERW clearing ongoing (OCHA 2021, p.67). It is also identified as one of the most under-assessed counties, with obstacles to assessment including physical access constraints as well as insecurity (OCHA 2021, p.84), including attacks on aid workers based on ethnic identity and looting of humanitarian convoys (OCHA 2021, p. 22).

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Sitting along the critical road between Juba and Yei, Lainya town has been a strategically important location for military operations and war economy. Control over the town exchanged hands between the SPLM/A and SAF multiple times during the second Sudanese civil war (Madut-Arop 2006, p.159), with teak being smuggled from Lainya across the Ugandan border by both the Sudan Armed Forces and the SPLM/A (de Simone 2022 p.175). After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005, Yei River District was divided into four smaller units, including Lainya County.

Lainya has disputed borders with neighbouring Juba and Yei counties, which have overlapped with inter and intra-ethnic disputes (Justin and de Vries 2019). In 2010, a dispute between Juba and Lainya counties relating to the jurisdiction over Wonduruba Payam escalated during the 2010 elections, dividing the Pajulu and Nyangwara communities. This culminated in an assassination attempt made against a prominent SPLM member who favoured the inclusion of Wonduruba Payam in Juba County, in a possible move to enlarge their constituency (Leonardi 2013 p.191). This resulted in a compromise being negotiated, with the Payam being treated as independent of either county for the purpose of electoral constituencies. In 2007, a localised land dispute along the boundary between Yei and Lainya counties involving Pajulu chiefs from both counties escalated in a wider political dispute between parts of the Pajulu and Kakwa communities over the location of the border. A separate incident occurred in 2007 when residents of Kenyi Payam occupied an area of forest which had been leased to a private company for logging, preventing operations from commencing. The incident had brought together communities from parts of Lainya and Yei, who faced either eviction from the leased areas and/or the loss of access to the forest to meet their livelihood needs (de Simone 2022, pp.175-77).

In recent years, clashes involving parts of the Mundari and Dinka Bor pastoralist communities have been reported in Lainya County (Radio Tamazuj 2015), alongside friction (and at times violent conflict) between local residents and pastoralists. In early 2021, conflict among Mundari pastoralists spread to Lainya from Juba County. NAS forces (see below) were drawn into the intra-Mundari conflict, and were reported to have been involved in an incident in January 2021 that killed 12 people (UNSC 2021, p.4). A series of attacks by alleged Mundari pastoralists against local farmers was also reported in the first half of 2021 (Radio Tamazuj 2021a). In March 2023, suspected Dinka Bor pastoralists were alleged to have killed several civilians in Wuji Payam, though the circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear (Radio Tamazuj 2023).

Lainya County was not significantly impacted during the initial stages of the national conflict (2013-2018), though the county received a large number of IDPs from nearby areas, including Juba (IRNA 2014). Insecurity in the area intensified as Riek Machar fled Juba in June 2016 and used the southern pathway to the Congolese border, transiting through Lainya and Yei. Local militias in Lainya (who had previously mobilised against armed Dinka pastoralists) fought alongside Machar’s largely Nuer forces, creating a new arm of the rebel movement (Boswell 2021). As in other parts of Central Equatoria, the conflict in Lainya has taken the form of insurgent activity and repressive counter-insurgency, with the conflict also taking on an ethnic inflection. During the conflict, government forces were able to hold towns in the county, whilst the opposition were largely limited to conducting guerilla-style operations from rural bases. When CTSAMM visited Lainya in January and February 2017 they found that 3,080 residences had been burned, leaving most of the population forcibly displaced. Reports of conflict related sexual violence were also recorded by human rights monitors in these areas (UNMISS 2019). The OHCHR reported that it had reasonable grounds to believe that the SPLA and its allied Mathiang Anyoor** forces engaged in serious human rights violations in Central Equatoria including killings, rape, arbitrary detentions, torture, destruction of civilian property and looting in Lainya, Yei, and Kajo-Keji counties between 11 July 2016 and December 2017 (OHCHR 2018).

The establishment of the National Salvation Front (NAS) in February 2017 created a new conflict dynamic in parts of Greater Equatoria. By September 2018, NAS secured a firm hold on territories around Lainya – particularly in the southern part of the county towards Yei and in the north-west towards the disputed Wonduruba Payam. Government offensives throughout 2019 dislodged many of these NAS positions, leaving NAS reliant on hit and run tactics disrupting the road networks. NAS activity and government-led counterinsurgency operations continue to define the security context in Lainya with cycles of ambushes, counter-attacks and abductions undermining livelihoods and recovery options, even as civilians return from displacement in neighbouring states. Severe fighting between NAS and the SSPDF and SPLA-IO occurred from January-June 2020. ACLED reported that in May 2020, 11 villages in the area were burned, and an estimated total of 22,000 people were displaced according to Amnesty International (2020). Soldiers accused civilians of feeding NAS fighters and working as their informers (Amnesty International 2020). Fighting between the forces continued intermittently in Lainya in 2021 and 2022, though declined in 2023. Instances of alleged abuses of the civilian population by security forces have been reported during this time (UN HRC 2023, p.14), which have been disputed by the military (Radio Tamazuj 2021b).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Lainya (County Headquarters), Kenyi, Kupera, Mukaya, and Wuji

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

Roads:

• Lainya is located along the primary road running between Juba to its northeast and Yei to its southwest. Road conditions deteriorate during the rainy season, with the Lainya-Juba stretch of the road deemed “Passable with difficulties” in 2022, and impassible to Yei town. The road was fully passable in the dry season of 2023.
• The conditions for a secondary road connecting Lainya to Jambo town in neighbouring Mundri East County are unknown for both the rainy and dry seasons of 2022 and 2023, respectively.

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

REFERENCES

Africa Confidential. (1999). Gas mask. Retrieved 7 October 2023.

Amnesty International. (2020). South Sudan: UN arms embargo must be maintained after surge in violence against civilians in 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Boswell, A. (2019). Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Boswell, A. (2021). Conflict and Crisis in South Sudan’s Equatoria. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

De Simone, S. (2022). State-building South Sudan: International Intervention and the Formation of a Fragmented State. Leiden: Brill.

FAO & WFP. (2018). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

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

IRNA. (2014). Initial Rapid Needs Assessment: Juba (Bungu and Ganji Payams), Lainya and Yei Counties, Central Equatoria State, 5 – 6 February 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2023.

Justin, P.H. and de Vries, L. (2019). Governing Unclear Lines: Local Boundaries as a (Re)source of Conflict in South Sudan, Journal of Borderlands Studies 34 (1), pp. 31-46.

Leonardi, C. (2013). Dealing with Government in South Sudan: Histories of Chiefship, Community and State. Oxford: James Currey.

Madut-Arop, A. (2006). Sudan’s Painful Road to Peace: A Full Story of the Founding and Development of SPLM/SPLA. Booksurge Publishing.

OCHA. (2021). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

OHCHR. (2018). Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2015). Fighting between herders in Central Equatoria kills 12 people. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2017). Lainya County suspends teak tree logging. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021a). Terekeka County cattle keepers leave Lainya County. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021b). SSPDF denies involvement in Lianya [sic] killings, blames NAS. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023). MPs demand justice for Lainya County murder victims. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

SSCOC & POF. (2020). The Impact of Logging Activities on Local Communities. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

UN HRC (Human Rights Council). (2023). Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, A/HRC/52/26. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

UNMISS. (2019). Conflict-related Violations and Abuses in Central Equatoria, September 2018—April 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

UNSC. (2021). Situation in South Sudan: Report of the Secretary-General, S/2021/172. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

REPORTS on LAINYA

Aquila, L. (2021). Child labour, education and commodification in South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute/XCEPT.

Boswell, A. (2021). Conflict and Crisis in South Sudan’s Equatoria. 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.

Mountfort, H. (2012). Livelihoods and Basic Services in Lainya County, South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas. Unavailable online in July 2023.

UNEP. (2013). South Sudan Pilot and Community Forestry Project: Forest Cover Mapping in Ifwoto and Lainya Payams – Technical Report. 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) 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 name ‘Mathiang Anyoor’ has been used in a variety of ways, some of which have conflict sensitivity implications. Initially referring to a paramilitary force established in 2012 in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, and which primarily comprised Dinka (and some Luo) recruits, desertions and heavy losses incurred by the force during the early stages of the national conflict led to further rounds of recruitment from Warrap and Northern Bahr el-Ghazal states in 2014 and 2015, which occurred alongside SPLA recruitment (including from predominantly Dinka areas). The term was also increasingly deployed pejoratively to refer to Dinka SPLA/SSPDF soldiers during the second half of the national conflict (2013-2018) by opposition groups, as the conflict intensified in Greater Equatoria. In Lainya County, it is not possible to reliably determine whether forces that are locally described as being ‘Mathiang Anyoor’ have connections to the paramilitary force of the same name, or else are references to Dinka SPLA/SSPDF soldiers based in the area. See Boswell (2019).