Maridi County, Western Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 82,461
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 87,140
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 110,513

Ethnic groups: Baka, Mundu, Avok’aya /Avukaya, Zande, Moro Kodo, Wetu

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 8,998 IDPs (-6,934 Q1 2020) and 9,763 returnees (+804 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Stressed (Phase 2); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Maridi County is located in Western Equatoria State. It borders Mvolo County to the northeast, Mundri West County to the east and Ibba County to the west. It also borders Lakes State (Wulu County) to the northwest, Central Equatoria State (Yei County) to the southeast and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the southwest.

The county falls within the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). The main livelihood activities in Maridi are farming (44%), cattle herding (36%), and fishing (13%) (IOM 2013). An estimated 70% of households in Maridi were estimated to be engaged in farming by 2021, with a gross cereal yield of 1.6 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasing to 1.7 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). In addition, beekeeping and honey harvesting is also a viable means of livelihood for residents of Maridi County, similar to many other counties in Western Equatoria. Additionally, the presence of three rivers in the county has made fishing a viable livelihood.

Insecurity across Western Equatoria, beginning in 2015, has impacted the ability of Maridi residents to sustain their livelihoods, which relies on consistent and safe access to land, forest and rivers. Insecurity along major roads running through Maridi disrupted trade and transportation routes that supported the local economy, inflating the prices of goods in the market. Combined with the financial crisis that began in South Sudan in 2015, these economic challenges greatly reduced the capacity of the local market to supply goods and services to the population, particularly when subsistence livelihoods were under pressure.

In November 2022, Maridi was classified as experiencing a Crisis (IPC Phase 3) level of food insecurity. This is predicted to decrease to Stressed (IPC Phase 2) level conditions from December 2022 until March 2023, whereupon the projections indicate a return to Crisis-level conditions until July 2023.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county’s headquarters is located in Maridi Town in Maridi Payam.

Maridi County is home to nine (9) early childhood education centres, fifty-five (55) primary schools and seven (7) secondary schools including the all-girls Maridi Girls Boarding Secondary. All secondary schools are located in Maridi Payam except for Eyira Secondary in Mambe Payam. Historically, Maridi hosted a site a major teacher-training and curriculum-development center, however its operations were interrupted by civil wars, and – while the institution was due to reopen in mid-2017 (Eye Radio 2017) – it is not listed among the educational institutions in 2022(SAMS 2022).

Maridi County was reported to have thirty-one (31) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among the health facilities are twenty-three (23) PHCUs, seven (7) PHCCs and one (1) hospital in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 3.13 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 2.72 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Maridi as among the ten counties with the highest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. Maridi Hospital is reported to be moderately functional.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, 65,407 people in the county have humanitarian needs (up significantly from 34,700 in 2021), which represents approximately 59% of the projected population for Maridi. In 2020, the HNO cited Maridi as one of 14 counties cited in the “extreme category” for SGBV issues. Community dialogues facilitated by Saferworld in 2020 identified a number of SGBV issues facing the community (Saferworld 2020). Participants noted increasing rates of rape and early and forced marriages.

While Maridi was not as affected by flooding in 2021 as many counties in South Sudan, in 2020 it was affected severely enough that teams deployed to conduct IRNAs in Maridi struggled to access the area due to high flood waters. In 2021, wildfires affected 11 villages and over 100 homes were destroyed (Radio Tamazuj 2021).

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Insecurity associated with seasonal movements of pastoralists and irregular movements of armed groups – such as the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) – along the borders with DRC/CAR led to the growth of community defence groups known as ‘arrow boys’ in Western Equatoria in the period following the CPA in 2005. At various points in time the ‘arrow boys’ collaborated with and substituted for the army, state and central government, including in Maridi County.

The outbreak of civil war in December 2013 saw fighting in neighbouring states and the spread of new diseases drive cattle-keeping nomadic communities from Jonglei and Lakes States into Maridi and Mundri Counties in increasing numbers. These movements escalated significantly from 2015 onwards, with communal clashes between nomadic Dinka cattle keepers from Lakes State and communities indigenous to Maridi leading to a period of sustained insecurity and displacement. In this context, the ‘arrow boys’ became absorbed into the conflict and seen as an important mechanism to protect against attacks from both pastoralist groups and perceived mistreatment by the SPLA (Schomerus and Taban 2017). It is worth noting that cattle-keepers were often much better armed than the agro-communities in Maridi. After a Dinka cattle camp was attacked, retaliatory conflict led to over 20,000 residents being displaced to the periphery of Maridi town, and over 7,000 people to neighboring Ibba County. In addition to fatalities and injuries resulting from the attack, almost 200 houses were burned and shops were targeted for looting (IRNA 2015). A REACH assessment conducted in 2018, at the height of insecurity in Western Equatoria, revealed that 18% of settlements in the county had IDPs. By 2017, the ‘arrow boys’ in Maridi County as elsewhere had been mostly either demobilized, absorbed into new formal armed groups that arose in Western Equatoria (such as the SSNLM), defeated or intimidated into submission by groups with access to greater resources and firepower.

Ongoing insecurity in Western Equatoria, and the presence of military barracks in Maridi, which has been converted to a cantonment site (plagued by constant supply shortages) since the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCISS) have also contributed to conflict dynamics in the county (UNMISS 2020). However, insecurity in August and September 2019 in Maridi County caused up to several thousand residents of Embe and surrounding settlements to flee to Maridi town. Furthermore, periodic clashes between the National Salvation Front (NAF) and the SPLA/SSPDF occasionally result in displacement of civilians to areas in Maridi, such as the displacement of 612 people to Maridi Town and the DRC in Feb 2020 (IOM 2020).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Maridi (County Headquarters), Kozi, Landili, Mambe, Ngamunde

UN OCHA 2020 map for Maridi County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-maridi-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

• A primary road runs through via Maridi town, heading west to Wau (Western Bar el Ghazal State) via Yambio and east to Juba (Central Equatoria State) via Mundri town. During the rainy season of 2022, the western section of the road designated ‘passable with difficulties’ between Wau and Maridi, and passable all the way to Juba east of Maridi. The same road was considered passable during the dry season of 2023, excepting the stretch of road running north between Tambura and Wau, which was designated ‘passable with difficulties’.
• A spur of the same primary road runs south from Longbua town to Yei (Central Equatoria State). The condition of the road is unknown.
• A secondary road travels north-south throughout the length of the county via Maridi town, running north to Mvolo County and south into Yei County of Central Equatoria State. Seasonal road conditions are unknown.

UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Maridi

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2017). Maridi: New Teachers Training Institute to reopen. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2023). South Sudan 2022 Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) Summary of findings. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

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

IOM. (2020). Western Equatoria Event Tracking Report. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

IRNA (2015). IRNA Report: Maridi and Ibba Counties. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Maridi wildfire victims in need of help. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Saferworld. (2020). Enhancing peace, safety and security in Maridi, South Sudan. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2020). Government and opposition forces endure difficult living conditions at Maridi training center. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

REPORTS on MARIDI

Saferworld. (2020). Enhancing peace, safety and security in Maridi, South Sudan. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Schomerus, M. and Taban, C. (2017). ‘Arrow boys, armed groups and the SPLA: intensifying insecurity in the Western Equatorian states’. Chapter 2 in ‘Informal Armies: Community defence groups in South Sudan’s civil war’, Saferworld. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2016). Conflict in Western Equatoria: Describing events through 17 July 2016. Retrieved 15 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.