Luakpiny/Nasir County, Upper Nile State
Demographics
2008 NBS Census population: 210,002
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 71,781
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 294,352
2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 71,780
2024 IPC population estimate: 303,183
2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 350,742
Ethnic groups: Eastern Jikany Nuer (Gaagwang, Gaajok: Cie-Nyalieth/Wang Kech)
Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 3,200 IDPs (3,200 Sept. 2023) and 194,063 returnees (+118,155 Sept. 2023)
IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Emergency (Phase 4); IPC Projections: December 2024 to March 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4); April to July 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4)
Economy & Livelihoods
Luakpiny/Nasir County is located in Upper Nile State. It borders Ethiopia to the southeast, Maiwut County to the east, and Baliet and Ulang counties to the west. The Pibor and Baro rivers intersect at the county’s southern border and flow into the Sobat River, which flows past Nasir town. All three rivers serve as major riverine transportation routes.
Luakpiny/Nasir is part of the Eastern flood plains and the Sobat River Basin livelihood zones. The bulk of the county is characterized by seasonal lakes and marshlands. The entire Sobat Basin is flood-prone during the rainy season but provides excellent pasture during the dry season and is largely an agro-pastoral area. An estimated 50% of households in 2019 engaged in farming as their primary livelihood (FAO/WFP 2019), with the remainder made up mostly by those rearing livestock and fishing. This number of households engaged in farming has been maintained as of 2021. Gross cereal yields were reported at 0.6 tonnes per hectare in 2021 and 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022, FAO/WFP 2023).
Unlike most other areas in South Sudan, the staple cereal in Luakpiny/Nasir and neighbouring counties is maize. Other crops grown include sorghum, cowpeas, pumpkins, and okra. The main livestock reared are cattle, goats, and chickens. Households generate income by selling charcoal, firewood and grass, collecting wild food, and fishing. Fishing from the Sobat River and its ponds and tributaries is seasonal. Normal flooding of the river provides excellent pasture during the dry season above Luakpiny/Nasir County. Pastoralists from Sudan traditionally migrate seasonally into Luakpiny/Nasir County in search of this water and pasture.
The outbreak of civil war in December 2013 and systemic instability have compounded recurrent drivers of food insecurity such as flooding, drought, pests and localised conflict. Luakpiny/Nasir has also hosted IDPs from other areas, which has led to increased household sizes among host communities and placed additional stress on the food supply. Other drivers of food insecurity include the depletion of livestock as assets, which has limited the ability of households to sell these assets to purchase food, and the elevated cost of importing food from Ethiopia. As a result, foraging for wild foods or turning to alternative ways of generating income some as charcoal-making have become common coping mechanisms when local food supplies are low. FEWSNET reported in that since 2013 there has been an increased reliance on markets for food supplies.
IPC projections for Luakpiny/Nasir County are at Emergency levels (IPC Phase 4) of food insecurity as of November 2024, and are projected to remain at Emergency levels until at least July 2025. As of November 2022, over 25% of households in Luakpiny/Nasir were predicted to meet between 25% and 50% of their caloric needs from humanitarian food assistance, though projections for December 2022 to July 2023 indicate that fewer than 25% will require humanitarian assistance during this time period.
Luakpiny/Nasir was affected by flooding in both 2020 and 2021. Affected communities’ reported destruction of their shelters and overcrowded living conditions, whilst many schools were damaged by flooding and some that remained were being used as temporary shelter for IDPs. In 2021 Luakpiny/Nasir was designated a flood-affected county by the Emergency Response Coordination Center and by late October over 10,000 people have been seriously affected.
Infrastructure & Services
The county HQ is Nasir town. Severe annual flooding has limited sustained development of infrastructure and services for the county. Veterinary services are scarce due to the minimal infrastructure and services available. The entire eastern portion of the county is without any roads of note, with the only primary road in the county limited to the most western 10 kilometres of the county connecting Nasir town to Ulang County.
Furthermore, the county has historically played a significant role in aid operations, as it was a key location for Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) from 1989 to 2005. Due to its location, it also received a number of refugees from Ethiopia leading up to independence. The recent national conflict in South Sudan saw inflow of IDPs from Malakal, Juba and Ulang into Luakpiny/Nasir County, who have lived mostly amongst the host community. This has placed increased pressure on the limited services available and spread of livestock diseases driven in part by cattle herds that IDPs brought with them. Residents of Luakpiny/Nasir have also fled to Ethiopia as refugees when clashes were particularly volatile in the county.
Luakpiny/Nasir County is home to seven (7) Early Childhood Development centres, seventy-nine (79) primary schools, and one (1) secondary school, Nasir Complex Secondary in Nasir Payam.
In December 2024, the WHO reported that Luakpiny/Nasir County had twenty-eight (28) health facilities, of which fifteen (15) were functional. These functional facilities included eleven (11) primary health care units (PHCUs), three (3) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and one (1) hospital. This means there were approximately 0.47 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.43 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time, which places the county among those with the lowest PHCCs per 50,000 people. Nasir County Hospital was reported to have moderate functionality.
According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 252,569 people in need in Luakpiny/Nasir County, which represents approximately 72% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 97,225 people in need in Luakpiny/Nasir County, of whom 23,882 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there were nearly 235,500 people with humanitarian needs in Luakpiny/Nasir County (compared to 243,600 in 2021), which represented approximately 80% of the estimated population of the county reported in the HNO that year. Furthermore, the county has played a significant role in aid operations, as it was a key location for Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) from 1989 to 2005. Due to its location, it also received a number of refugees from Ethiopia leading up to independence.
Conflict Dynamics
Luakpiny/Nasir County, is located along the strategically important Sobat River, and includes the port town of Nasir. The county has been the site of complex political manoeuvring that has impacted the trajectory of conflict during the Sudanese and South Sudanese civil wars. The county was a focal point for Anya-Nya 2 activity in the run-up to the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), and an epicentre for fighting between the SPLM/A and Anya-Nya 2 forces in the 1980s before the eventual capture of Nasir town in 1989, which followed the integration of Anya-Nya 2 into the SPLM/A (Johnson 2003).
Nasir town has a symbolic resonance due it being the location from where Riek Machar announced his 1991 split from SPLM/A leader John Garang, forming what would become known as the SPLM/A-Nasir faction. The SPLM/A-Nasir faction would undergo further (often violent) splintering after initial gains in the early 1990s, driving tensions between parts of the Lou and Eastern Jikany Nuer clans (PACT Sudan 2006, p.118). Nasir would become an epicentre of intra-Nuer conflict, and was torched in 1994 (Simonse 1999, p.52). The town was re-occupied by the Sudanese government in 1995, later becoming a stronghold for a faction of the South Sudan Defence Forces under the command of Gordon Koang. Meanwhile, conflict escalated between parts of the Gaagwang and Gaajok sections of the Eastern Jikany clan (PACT Sudan 2006, p.118). In addition to being closely associated with (often inter-linked) conflicts involving opposition splinter factions and local militia, Nasir is also notable for being the location of a 1998 plane crash that killed the then-Vice President of Sudan and a senior former SPLM/A commander (Africa Confidential 1998).
Following the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a peace conference between the Gaagwang and Gaajok sections was held in Mading in Luakpiny/Nasir, helping to reduce violence in the area (PACT Sudan 2006, p.118). This followed an escalation in the inter-sectional conflict in March 2004 (ACHA 2004, p.7). However, insecurity escalated along the Jonglei-Upper Nile borders between parts of the Eastern Jikany Nuer and Lou Nuer communities after the CPA, building on the prior conflicts dating back to the second civil war. This culminated in serious fighting between the SPLA and a militia group from the Eastern Jikany Nuer close to Nasir in June 2009, which reportedly resulted in a significant loss of life and the sinking of several barges that accompanied a mission to deliver food aid to Akobo (ICG 2009, pp.8-9). Community consultations carried out in 2012 found that tensions relating to cattle raiding among youth groups also affected parts of Luakpiny/Nasir and neighbouring Longochuk counties (UNDP 2012, p.21).
Following the outbreak of the South Sudanese civil war in December 2013, the county was quickly caught up in the conflict, becoming an early opposition stronghold and recruitment area (Small Arms Survey 2014). Nasir also hosted the SPLA-IO’s April 2014 Nasir Convention, which was the first major gathering of opposition politicians (Young 2015). Nasir town and its surrounding areas was seized by government forces in May 2014, with intense fighting reported over control of the town during parts of the following year. Whilst the SPLA-IO were able to retain control of much of rural Luakpiny/Nasir, they were unable to retake and hold Nasir. The SPLA were reported to have used Nasir as a staging ground for further operations, and are reported by the Small Arms Survey (2015) to have engaged in clashes with local youth as well as alleged attacks on villages in the county. Luakpiny/Nasir continued to experience fighting across parts of 2016, 2017, and early 2018, resulting in significant displacement of the local population.
Following the 2018 R-ARCSS, Luakpiny/Nasir has continued to experience tensions and periodic conflict, though by early 2019 humanitarian organizations were observing a large number of returns to the county. While some post-R-ARCSS conflict represents a continuation of tensions from the national conflict (2013-2018), divisions within the opposition camp and tensions between the SPLA-IO and local youth have also been associated with instability and tensions in the county. For instance, in March 2019, a local militia was alleged to have killed an SPLA-IO politician and two security guards as they travelled along the Sobat River (Radio Tamazuj 2019), while later that year an RJMEC report (2019, p.2) observed clashes along the Sobat between the SPLA-IO and SSPDF forces linked to a recently defected IO commander. Intra-opposition clashes between SPLA-IO loyalist forces and SPLA-IO Kitgweng faction were reported in Nasir in February 2022, killing at least ten soldiers (Eye Radio 2022).
Tensions between local youths and government forces have also flared in the county at several points since the R-ARCSS was signed. Throughout 2020 and 2021, there were a number of low-intensity incidents involving local militia and SSPDF forces. This included violence in Kiech Kuon Payam in March 2021 (Sudans Post 2021). More recently, a dispute at a fishing site south-west of Nasir town reportedly escalated in February 2024, resulting in skirmishes between youth and SSPDF soldiers (Radio Tamazuj 2024; The City Review 2024). Tensions spread to Nasir town, resulting in further clashes and property destruction (Sudans Post 2024). These incidents collectively highlight the highly militarised and fragmented nature of the state-society relations in Luakpiny/Nasir County.
Administration & Logistics
Payams: Nasir (County HQ), Dingkar, Jikmir, Kiech Kuon, Kuerenge-Ke, Mading, Maker, Roam
UN OCHA 2020 map of Luakpiny/Nasir County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-luakpinynasir-county-reference-map-march-2020
Roads:
- A primary road runs west from Nasir town to the state capital of Malakal. The Logistics Cluster listed the entirety of this road as impassable during both the rainy season of 2024 and dry season of 2025.
- A secondary road runs south-east to the border with Ethiopia. Seasonal conditions of this road are unknown.
- A secondary north-south route intersects at Nasir, heading south along the Pibor River to Akobo, and north to Paloich and Melut. Seasonal conditions of this road are unknown.
- The Sobat River runs along the southern edge of the county, with various destinations in the county listed along the route.
UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing-Sites and Airstrips: Jikmir
Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Jangok, Mandeng
References
ACHA. (2004). Gajok – Gaguang Pre-Peace Conference Assessment Report, 17 July 2003. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive 19 February 2024.
Africa Confidential. (1998). Political plane crash. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Eye Radio. (2022). 10 soldiers killed in rival SPLA-IO factions clashes in Nasir. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
FAO/WFP. (2019). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
FEWSNET. (2018). Livelihoods Zone Map and Descriptions for the Republic of South Sudan (Updated). Retrieved 10 July 2023.
ICG, International Crisis Group. (2009). Jonglei’s Tribal Conflicts: Countering Insecurity in South Sudan. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Johnson, D.H. (2003). The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars. Oxford: James Currey.
OCHA. (2019). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
OCHA. (2021). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
PACT Sudan. (2006). Sudan Peace Fund (SPF): Final Report October 2022 – December 2005. USAID.
Radio Tamazuj. (2019). Lawmaker killed in ambush in Upper Nile region. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Nasir flood victims lack food, shelter. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2024). Several dead, scores injured in Nasir County as SSPDF and civilians clash. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
RJMEC. (2019). On the status of the implementation of the R-ARCSS for the period 1st October to 31st December 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Simonse, S. (1999). Conflicts and peace initiatives within the civil war, 1992-1999 – East Bank Equatoria. Retrieved via Academia.edu 7 January 2024.
Small Arms Survey. (2014). The Conflict in Upper Nile State: Describes events through 9 October 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Small Arms Survey. (2015). The Conflict in Upper Nile State: Describes events through 9 April 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Sudans Post. (2021). Army attacks SPLA-IO positions in Nasir after clash with armed civilians. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Sudans Post. (2024). Fighting resumes in Nasir as tensions escalate between SSPDF and civilians. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
The City Review. (2024). Yakani condemns clash between SSPDF, civilians in Nasir County. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
- (2020). January-March 2020. Monitoring Review South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
UNDP. (2012). Community Consultation Report: Upper Nile State, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Young, J. (2015). A Fractious Rebellion: Inside the SPLM-IO. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
Reports on Luakpiny/Nasir
Nyaba, P.A. (1997). The Politics of Liberation in South Sudan: An Insider’s View. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
REACH. (2020). Situation Overview: Upper Nile State, South Sudan January—March 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Short, A. (2015). Cattle and Pastoralism in Greater Upper Nile Research Report
Small Arms Survey/HSBA. (2016). The Conflict in Upper Nile State. Retrieved 17 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.
