Mayendit

Mayendit County, Unity State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 53,783

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 66,163

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 70,936

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 66,163

2024 IPC population estimate: 73,064

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 74,335

Ethnic groups: Haak Nuer (Beek, Jalok, Kuey)

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 25,707 IDPs (+6,333 Sept. 2023) and 8,554 returnees (+2016 Sept. 2023)

IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2025 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4)

Economy & Livelihoods

Mayendit County is located in Unity State. It borders Koch County to the north, Leer County to the east, and Panyijiar County to the south-east. It also borders Lakes State (Rumbek North County) to the south-west, Warrap State (Tonj East and Tonj North Counties) to the west, and Jonglei State (Ayod County) via a narrow strip of land to the east.

The eastern half of the county belongs to the Nile-Sobat Rivers livelihood zone and the western half falls under the Western flood plains zone. The county has flat plains with a mix of savannah grassland, bushes and forest. Residents practice agro-pastoralism and supplement their diets through fishing and foraging. According to a 2013 IOM assessment, 36% of the population relies on agriculture, 36% on livestock rearing, and 27% on fishing for their livelihoods. More recent FAO/WFP data indicates that 35% of households in Mayendit County engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 0.6 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), increasing to 0.8 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023).

The soil in the county’s western area is black clay and the eastern area features black cotton soil. Both types of soil are suitable for cultivating a variety of crops. The main crops are maize and sorghum, with sorghum being the staple cereal. Vegetables such as cowpeas, pumpkin and okra are also cultivated. People also keep cattle, sheep and goats. The plentiful rivers, swamps and water courses provide an import source of nutrition in the dry season through fishing and foraging of water lilies. People engage in income generation through employment, and selling charcoal, firewood and grass.

Food insecurity in Mayendit County has been badly affected by the civil war, with famine declared in 2017. In November 2024, the IPC projected the county as being at crisis (IPC level 3) levels of food insecurity, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until April, 2025, when they are projected to deteriorate to Emergency (IPC level 4) from April to July 2025. As of November 2022, at least 25% of households in Mayendit meet over 50% of their calorific assistance through humanitarian assistance, although the percentage of calorific assistance met through assistance is projected to decline to between 25% and 50% from December 2022 to July 2023.

Infrastructure & Services

The County HQ is in Mayendit town. Roads in Mayendit tend to deteriorate during the rainy season, further hindering access and movement for residents and aid organizations.

Mayendit is home to one (1) Early Childhood Development centre, forty-eight (48) primary schools, and five (5) secondary schools.

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Mayendit County had twenty (20) health facilities, of which twelve (12) were functional. These functional facilities included ten (10) primary health care units (PHCUs), two (2) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and no hospitals. This means there were approximately 2.02 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.35 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 55,518 people in need in Mayendit County, which represents approximately 75% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 73,441 people in need in Mayendit County, of whom 32,968 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there were 63,841 people with humanitarian needs in Mayendit County (up from 51,800 in 2021), which represented nearly 90% of the county’s total population according to population estimates listed in the HNO. In the HNO for 2020, Mayendit was listed as one of nine counties in most “dire” need of health services (OCHA 2020).

Periodic floods and droughts continue to pose a risk to food security levels in Mayendit. Areas around Rubkuay and Thar Jath payams are particularly prone to flooding, as tributaries of the Nile also flow through those areas. After serious flooding in 2020, high rainfall in 2021 once again led to mass displacement and the disruption of livelihoods; in 2021 Mayendit was identified as a flood-affected county by the Emergency Response Coordination Centre. An August 2021 IRNA assessment of the flooding throughout the southern portion of Mayendit reported over 416 households displaced to Mayendit North and Leer County. Unusually, flooding continued throughout the 2021-22 dry season, contributing to protracted displacement and further undermining population coping capacities (Eye Radio 2022).

Conflict Dynamics

Mayendit sits along one of the dividing lines that have affected the Dinka and Nuer communities in South Sudan, and has become enmeshed in intra-Nuer political tensions and insecurity in recent years. Forming part of the Warrap-Lakes-Unity triangle, decades of escalating conflict and militarization of cattle keeping communities has undermined prospects for peaceful coexistence. Internal divisions that have affected Unity State’s Nuer communities – particularly between parts of the Nuer community of northern Unity (the Bul, Western Jikany, and Lek/Leek Nuer) and those from southern Unity (the Dok, Jagey, Haak, and Nyuong Nuer) – have impacted Mayendit County, and more recently youth from Mayendit have become involved in violence in neighbouring Leer County (discussed below). These youth groups from Mayendit have also engaged in cattle raids and low-level conflict with youth from Panyijiar County. In February 2012, a dispute between security forces from Warrap and Unity states escalated during UNMISS-mediated peace talks in Mayendit town, with the two forces reportedly killing 37 people, many of whom were police officers (BBC News 2012).

Mayendit County, along with most of southern Unity State, was an SPLA-IO stronghold during the national conflict (2013-2018). It is an area from which the SPLA-IO was able to recruit, and one which faced the various government offensives (at times backed by irregular forces from Lakes State) in 2014, 2015, and 2018. These offensives resulted in several strategic areas of the county coming under government control over the course of the war, though a number of areas remained under opposition control or were swiftly reclaimed following government campaigns. Amnesty International reported that during successive government offensives in 2014 and 2015, armed forces razed villages and engaged in numerous alleged human rights abuses (Amnesty International 2018). Human Rights Watch (2015) further observed that SPLA soldiers and affiliated militia destroyed buildings in and around Mayendit town, and displaced much of the population. The violence in Unity State during the national conflict has left enduring scars in the social fabric of southern Unity, and played an important role in creating the conditions for the 2017 famine (ICG 2017). In April and May 2018, government forces – backed by forces aligned to a senior figure who had aligned with the government in 2016 – were alleged to have engaged in numerous instances of human rights abuses in northern Mayendit, as is documented in a UNMISS/UN OHCHR report on southern Unity State (UNMISS/UN OHCHR 2018).

Despite the decline in fighting since the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018, the presence of armed militias, political antagonisms and realignments, and cross-border cattle raiding helped maintain conditions of instability in Mayendit County. Five people were killed and approximately 1,000 head of cattle were reportedly stolen during cattle raids conducted by attackers allegedly from greater Tonj in July 2019 (CEPO 2019), with another raid reportedly from Warrap State reported in May 2020. A series of clashes between unspecified pastoralists and youth militia took place in Mayendit County in May 2020 (IOM 2020), several weeks after seven people were killed following a cattle raid in Mayendit by youth allegedly from Panyijiar County. Meanwhile, internal fighting among parts of the Beek section of the Haak Nuer was also reported in mid-2021 (Radio Tamazuj 2021).

Tensions between government and opposition forces increased in Mayendit County during early 2019, and flared again in late September 2021 (Eye Radio 2021), amid alleged political divisions within Unity State (Small Arms Survey 2023). By early 2020, government forces maintained a strong presence in the main population centre and county headquarters, Mayendit town, and at the strategically important crossroads town of Rupkuay in the north. The surrounding areas – especially in northern Mayendit – were controlled by SPLA-IO forces and affiliated community-based armed groups. Armed youth from Mayendit known as ‘Tahrir’** were implicated by the UN in allegedly widespread human rights violations in neighbouring Leer County between February and April 2022 (UNMISS/UN OHCHR 2022, p.15). Meanwhile, positions held by the SPLA-IO in north-eastern Mayendit County were also affected by fighting, particularly during the month of February (UNMISS/UN OHCHR 2022). The fighting – which involved SSPDF (backed by militia from Mayendit and Koch counties) and SPLA-IO forces – is discussed further in the profile for Leer County.

Administration & Logistics

Payams: Boor (County HQ at Mayendit Town), Dablual, Luom, Mal, Pabuong, Rupkuay, Thaker, Tharjiath, Tutnyang

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

Roads:

  • A primary road runs roughly vertically through Mayendit County, connecting the county to Rumbek town in Lakes State to the south and to the Unity State capital of Bentiu to the north. The road was deemed impassable during the rainy season of 2024. During the dry season of 2025, the road running south from Thaker, through Mayendit, to Rumbek was impassable, while the road running north, from Mayendit to Bentiu, was passable.
  • A primary road branches off the main trunk road to connect to Leer town and Adok port in Leer County. The road was designated impassable during the rainy season of 2024. During the dry season of 2025, the road between Thaker and Leer was passable but impassable between Leer and Adok..
  • A secondary road in the south-west of the county connects Mayendit to Panyijar County. The condition of this road was not reported in 2024 and 2025.
  • Tertiary roads cover northern and western areas of the county, and connect Mayendit to Tonj North County to the west. The seasonal conditions of the roads are unknown.
  • The river route along the Nile from Bor to northern Unity State passes through the far north-east of Mayendit County, with the county being served by a port at Kilo 29.

UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Mayendit town

Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Thaker

The logistic cluster serves the ports of Adok and Kilo 29 and coordinates humanitarian barge and boat traffic. As of 2025, the logistics cluster is operating river transportation at 50%, owing to funding constraints.

References

BBC News. (2012). South Sudan shoot-out at Unity state peace talks. Retrieved 7 December 2023.

CEPO. (2019). Five Killed in Armed Clashes in Southern Liech State. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2020). Calm returns to Unity after days of clashes. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

Eye Radio. (2021). Mayendit Commissioner survives assassination attempt. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

Eye Radio. (2022). 47 die of floods and snakebite since October in Mayendit County. 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.

Human Rights Watch. (2015). “They Burned it All”: Destruction of Villages, Killings, and Sexual Violence in Unity State South Sudan. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

IOM. (2020). South Sudan — Event Tracking: Mayom, Rubkona & Mayendit County, Unity State (May 2020). Displacement Tracking Matrix. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

IRNA. (2021). Inter-Agency Flood Assessment Report, Mayendit County, Unity State 18th-21st August 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). 3 killed in Unity State revenge attacks. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2023). The Body Count: Controlling Populations in Unity State. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

UNMISS/UN OHCHR. (2018). Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Southern Unity, April-May 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

UNMISS/UN OHCHR. (2022). Attacks against civilians in southern Unity State, South Sudan February – May 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2023.

Reports on Mayendit

Amnesty International. (2018). ‘“Anything that was breathing was killed”: War Crimes in Leer and Mayendit, South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

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

Luka, E. E., & Burgess, A. (2017). ‘Famine and its effects on health in South Sudan: An editorial Commentary’. South Sudan Medical Journal, 10 (3), 69-70. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Pendle, N. (2020). ‘Politics, prophets and armed mobilizations: competition and continuity over registers of authority in South Sudan’s conflicts’, in Journal of Eastern African Studies 14 (1), 43–62. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Pijnacker, R., et al. (2018), ‘Retrospective mortality survey in the MSF catchment area in Mayendit County, Unity State, South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2021). ‘Unity State: New Appointments and Developments’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNDP. (2012). Community Consultation Report: Unity State, South Sudan. No longer available online on 7 August 2023.

UNICEF. (2016). County Social Map: Mayendit Conty, South Sudan, Polio Eradication Initiative. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNMISS/UN OHCHR. (2019). Conflict-related sexual violence in northern Unity: September – December 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.

** Note: A local source reports that the youth group are an informal and loosely organised group based in the north of Mayendit County, whose formation pre-dates the national conflict. The group reportedly has a good relationship with armed youth from Koch County, and also has a history of working alongside the government and/or military in operations in Leer and Mayendit counties during the national conflict.