Morobo County, Central Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 103,603
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 39,644
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 116,237

Ethnic groups: Kakwa, Kaliko/Keliku, Lubara

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 27,378 IDPs (+24,883 Q1 2020) and 26,862 returnees (+19,298 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

Morobo County is located in Central Equatoria State. It borders Yei County to the north-west, Lainya County to the north-east, Uganda to the south-east and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south-west.

The county is a part of the greenbelt of South Sudan, with fertile soil that makes it a prime area for agricultural activities. According to FEWSNET (2018), Morobo County falls within the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone. Groundnuts, sorghum, cassava and maize are some of the most common and marketable crops grown in the area, with bananas also being grown on a more limited scale. However, due to challenges with trade and transportation farmers tend to have difficulty accessing quality seeds, and are often required to sell their produce to wholesalers for a lower price than could otherwise be had were the county to be better connected to larger markets.

In addition to agricultural livelihoods, half of the population reported possessing cattle. The county is also one of the areas in South Sudan known for mineral extraction. A Cordaid report published in 2016 estimated that there were approximately 5,000 artisanal gold miners operating in the area, however it is unclear to what extent this number has been impacted by the conflict.

Morobo County – along with nearby Lainya and Kajo-Keji Counties – is known for its forests and export of teak, which has provided a financial resource for both armed groups operating in the area. 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. The border crossing at Kaya is an important transit points for exports from Morobo County and neighbouring counties to Uganda. 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).

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. An estimated 38% of households in Morobo County engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 1.8 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), increasing to 1.9 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). A 2020 REACH assessment found worrisome negative coping strategies being employed. Residents in 27% of assessed settlements were coping with a lack of food by only having children eat and 23% were consuming wild foods known to make people sick. Residents in 36% of settlements reported their hunger was severe or the worst it can be, rising to 67% in 2022 (REACH 2022). Of serious consequence to farmers, a 66% decline in crop production over the 5-year average was predicted in 2020. At the same time, all settlements continued to report having physical access to a functional market.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

Morobo County lies at the border with Uganda, making it a key area for both the migration of people and the trade of goods. The county maintains multiple official and unofficial migration points, with Kaya being the main point of entry. However, inadequate infrastructure, specifically roads and affordable transportation options, limit the ability of Morobo residents to expand their agricultural activities to commercial levels. Insecurity in the area has also impacted the ability of residents to access their land for subsistence agricultural livelihoods.

Morobo County is home to two (2) early childhood development centres and nine (9) primary schools. There is one secondary school in the county. Findings from a June 2020 IRNA indicated serious problems with the physical condition of school buildings in the county, and shortages of teachers and learning supplies (including within Morobo town itself).

Morobo County was reported to have fifteen (15) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among them are twelve (12) PHCUs and three (3) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.55 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.29 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Morobo County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there are an estimated 98,650 people in need in Morobo County (up from 88,200 in 2021), which is equivalent to about 85% of the estimated population reported in the HNO. Morobo County is among the eight counties in the Equatorial region with the highest level of recorded landmine and explosive remnants of war, which have proliferated as a result of the recent conflict in the Equatoria region (OCHA 2021 p. 67). Landmines have made it difficult for residents to access basic services such as healthcare and schools in the area.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Nestled along the tri-border area between South Sudan, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), present-day Morobo County straddled multiple theatres of conflict during the 1990s. Morobo was briefly seized by the SPLM/A during the third Bright Star campaign of 1990/1991 (de Bion 2020, p.135), though reverted to Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) control. In March 1997, the SPLM/A – with support from the Ugandan military – seized the critical border town of Kaya and its surroundings in the initial phases of Operation Thunderbolt, dislodging the SAF (who had been assisting the Zairian military against Laurent Kabila’s forces) and their Ugandan West Nile Bank Front allies (de Vries 2012, p. 69). The SPLM/A swiftly captured Yei town to the north. The SPLM/A held the area since this time, and ultimately governed Morobo from Yei, which had become the headquarters of the SPLM Secretariat in 1998. After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, Yei River District was divided into four smaller counties, with Morobo being one such county.

Addressing smuggling and the presence of illicit checkpoints have been the primary security issues in the county since this time, alongside managing relations with neighbouring authorities in Uganda and the DRC. Due to its border location, Morobo County hosts large numbers of South Sudanese returnees from Uganda and the DRC. There have been tensions between parts of the South Sudanese and Congolese communities and their respective authorities. These tensions relate to border demarcation disputes, and the tendency of some off-duty South Sudanese security forces to carry their weapons to their homes on the Congolese side of the border. In May 2016, a conflict between residents near the border was sparked by the alleged raising of Congolese flags in villages in Morobo County, and was referred to the national government, according to local media reports (Gurtong 2016). As Morobo became increasingly insecure after 2016 (a situation which has also resulted in deteriorating humanitarian conditions), the county has also been a site of attacks on humanitarian workers (Global Rights Compliance 2022). In October 2019, IOM staff monitoring the border for Ebola were kidnapped and three were killed by armed groups in Kaya (IOM 2019). This led to the suspension of border monitoring indefinitely. Aside from periodic cross-border tensions, relations between the communities of Morobo have been peaceful, with no reports of significant tensions or violence.

During the initial stages of the national conflict (2013-2018), Morobo County escaped the worst of the fighting. However, since 2016 Morobo and its neighbouring counties of Kajo-Keji and Yei became increasingly unstable, whilst ambushes along the Yei-Kaya road have increased. With the strategic Kaya border crossing as well as teak and gold resources, government and opposition forces fiercely contested these areas, later drawing in the National Salvation Front (NAS) also. The government were able to retain control of Morobo and Kaya towns, and repelled an SPLA-IO assault on Kaya in August 2017 (Africa Confidential 2017). During the failed assault, a journalist of joint British and American nationality who had been embedded within the SPLA-IO was also killed, in circumstances which have yet to be determined (Reporters Without Borders 2023). Despite the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018, NAS – which is not a signatory to the agreement – continues to operate in the area. Insurgent and counter-insurgent activity have generally manifested as targeted attacks on the roads, abduction, rape and killing, looting and the destruction of villages, forced displacement, and intimidation of the local population. Since late 2018, the focus of insecurity has been fighting between NAS and the SPLA-IO. Additional insecurity occurred following the defection of a Major General from the SPLA-IO to the SSDPF in Kajo-Keji in September 2020. Intermittent attacks attributed by authorities to the SPLA-IO or NAS have been reported in Morobo County since this time (Radio Tamazuj 2022; UNSC 2022, p.4), while flare-ups of insecurity have continued along the Yei-Kaya road (Eye Radio 2022).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Kimba (County Headquarters), Gulumbi, Lujulo, Panyume, Wudabi

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

 Main roads:

• One primary and one tertiary road connects Morobo town to Yei Town to its north, with the primary road also connecting Morobo town to Kaya town on the Ugandan border to the south-east. The Logistics Cluster has not noted the conditions of these roads in either the rainy season of 2022 or dry season of 2023. A number of security incidents have been reported along the Yei-Kaya road in recent years.
• Conditions for the tertiary road – which runs west from Morobo town and then north to Yei – are also unknown.

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

REFERENCES

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

Africa Confidential. (2017). No let-up in southern fighting. Retrieved 6 October 2023.

Cordaid. (2016). Mining in South Sudan: Opportunities and Risks for Local Communities. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

de Bion, D. (2020). SPLM/SPLA: History of Liberation (1983-2005). Africa World Books, Perth.

de Vries, L. (2012). Facing Frontiers Everyday practice of state-building in South Sudan. Doctoral thesis, Wageningen University. Retrieved 6 October 2023.

Eye Radio. (2022). Three bandits gunned down along Yei-Kaya road. Retrieved 6 October 2023.

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

Global Rights Compliance. (2022). No Choice but to Flee: Starvation and Displacement in Central Equatoria, South Sudan. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

Gurtong. (2016). DRC Ambassador Meets Yei Governor to Discuss Cross Border Dispute. Retrieved 13 July 2023 (via Wayback Machine).

IOM. (2019). IOM condemns the killing of aid workers amidst deteriorating security situation in Morobo County. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

OCHA. (2019). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2022). Over 1,000 people flee Morobo County villages following SPLA-IO attacks. Retrieved 6 October 2023.

REACH. (2020). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile – Morobo County. Retrieved 13 July 2023

REACH. (2022). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profiles. Retrieved 13 July 2023

Reporters Without Borders. (2023). South Sudan: Long overdue investigation into killing of journalist Christopher Allen is insufficient to deliver justice. Retrieved 6 October 2023.

UNSC. (2022). Situation in South Sudan: Report of the Secretary-General (S/2022/918). Retrieved 6 October 2023.

VOA. (2019). Five Civilians Killed in South Sudan: Government, Rebels Trade Blame. Retrieved 13 July 2023

REPORTS on MOROBO

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

Cordaid. (2016). Mining in South Sudan: Opportunities and Risks for Local Communities. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

de Vries, L. (2013). Pulling the ropes: Convenient indeterminacies and the negotiation of power at Kaya’s border checkpoint. In The Borderlands of South Sudan (pp. 153-172). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

de Vries, L. and Schomerus, M. (2014). Improvising border security: ‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Security Dialogue, 45(3), 279 –294. 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.

IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas. Retrieved 21 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.