Nyirol County, Jonglei State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 108,674
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 63,179
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 142,516

Ethnic groups and languages: Lou Nuer (Gun/Gon, Mor)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 41,164 IDPs (+12,980 Q1 2020) and 24,288 returnees (+13,455 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Emergency (Phase 4); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4); April to July 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Nyirol County borders Canal/Pigi, Ayod, Uror and Akobo Counties within Jonglei State and Upper Nile State to the north and east. The Fulus River flows across Nyirol County in the west. Additionally, the Sobat River flows along the county’s northeastern borders with Upper Nile State, and the Nyading River tracks along parts of its southeastern border. Nyirol County is part of the eastern plains, sorghum and cattle livelihood zone (FEWSNET 2018).

Agriculture and livestock rearing are the primary livelihoods in Nyirol County. A 2018 report from FAO and WFP estimated that 35% of households engage in agriculture, which remained the case in 2021. Gross cereal yields were reported at 0.45 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasingly to 0.6 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). The main crops grown are sorghum, millet, maize, groundnut, , pumpkins, cowpeas, okra and onion. The production of honey and tobacco are also potential livelihoods in the area. Lou Nuer cattle herders typically travel northwest towards Canal/Pigi County during the dry season in search of grazing land and water for their herds. The main hazards to livelihoods in the area include conflict and cattle raiding, flooding, livestock diseases, crop pests, and drought. Hazards such as cattle raiding and flooding have led to a decrease in the number of livestock in the county and has also decreased agricultural productivity (FAO/WFP 2018). The sale of cattle in Ethiopia and elsewhere have been an important mechanism for generating income when communities struggle with food insecurity, a lack of foods in the market, and inflation.

These conditions have made Nyirol County vulnerable to food insecurity. IPC projections for Nyirol are at Emergency levels (IPC Phase 4) of food insecurity as of November 2022, and are projected to remain at Emergency levels until at least July 2023. Moreover, 25% of households in the county meet 25-50% of their caloric needs through humanitarian assistance.

Many markets were destroyed or had their functions severely undermined as a result of broken supply lines during the South Sudanese Civil War (Oxfam 2016), which has hindered the resilience of communities in the area. Sizable populations of displaced persons have placed further pressure on these already scarce resources.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county’s headquarters are located in Lankien Town in Thol Payam. The outbreak of civil war in 2013 had a significant impact on the infrastructure and services in the county. During the civil war, the location of Nyirol County in northern Jonglei meant that it hosted significant IDP populations from a diverse range of communities, such as Shilluk and Dinka IDPs from Baliet and Malakal, and Nuer IDPs from Uror and Nasir. In May 2021, MTN began service in Nyirol for the first time since independence.

Nyirol is home to five (5) Early Childhood Development centres, eighty-three (83) primary schools and four (4) secondary schools. In 2019, REACH reported that only 20% of assessed settlements in Nyirol had access to education.

Nyirol County was reported to have eleven (11) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among them are seven (7) PHCUs and four (4) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 0.74 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.41 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Nyirol County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, the county currently has nearly 108,000 people with humanitarian needs (down from 118,000 in 2021), which represents approximately 75% of the estimated population of the county reported in the HNO. Nyirol – including Lankien Town – was significantly affected by flooding in 2019 and 2020, although the county was not among the flood-affected counties prioritized for humanitarian response during 2021. The cumulative impact of flooding over these years has significantly weakened coping mechanisms in Nyirol County.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Part of the Lou Nuer heartland, communities in Nyirol have long had a contested relationship with the expansion of state authority into the area as well as with the SPLM/A. As with the other primarily Lou Nuer counties of Uror and Akobo, opposition to the SPLM/A predates the 2013 civil war and is rooted in the founding of the movement. Alongside participation in national conflicts, elements of the Lou Nuer community have also been central actors in series of localized conflicts, with decades of escalating conflict with between parts of the Lou Nuer and their Murle neighbours in Pibor County, alongside intra-Nuer conflicts within greater Akobo and between armed groups from the Lou and the Gawaar Nuer clan from Ayod. Despite periods of conflict with the Dinka of Jonglei State, cultural, economic, and marriage ties exist between the Dinka and Nuer communities in western Lou Nuer areas, and the communities have at times co-operated or provided support to one another during some periods of insecurity or hardship. Decades of militarization, marginalization and violent confrontations have scarred the development and recovery potential of the area.

Nyirol county before independence (pre-2011)

During the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), Nyirol became enmeshed in complex factional politics, which created a number of divisions within the Nuer community, and strained relations with nearby Dinka groups. Among the early defectors from the government to the nascent SPLM/A were groups from Nyirol’s Waat town (alongside groups from Ayod), who both played an important role at the outset of the second civil war through engaging Anya-Nya 2 insurgents across the border with Ethiopia, and dislodging them from Bilpam in 1983 (Madut-Arop 2006, p.74). Anya-Nya 2 forces would operate in the Waat area in the mid-1980s, clashing with SPLM/A forces. Waat was seized by the SPLM/A in 1987; after the 1991 SPLM/A split, fighting was reported in the Waat area between forces who remained loyal to John Garang, and those who sided with the faction commanded by Riek Machar (Johnson 2003). The area was also exposed to escalating raids from groups of armed Murle youth as the 1990s progressed. Waat town fell within the ‘hunger triangle’ in Jonglei, where the combination of conflict and food insecurity led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in 1992 and 1993, following the fracturing of the SPLM/A into contending factions in 1991.

In 1999 Waat hosted an intra-Nuer dialogue, which included participants from the Wunlit Peace Conference of the same year (including members of the SPLM/A, and splinter factions aligned with the government). During the meeting, attendees resolved to renounce ties with the government (Johnson 2003, p.125). Communities from Nyiol were also involved in the Lou Peace Initiative from 2004, which included a specific peace initiative to resolve inter-sectional conflict un Nyirol’s Lankien area (PACT Sudan 2006, p.115).

During the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) era, Nyirol was affected by political turbulence and realignments at the national and subnational levels. As is discussed further in the profile for Ayod County, relations between the Gawaar and Lou Nuer communities would oscillate during the early stages of the CPA. Meanwhile, militias from parts of the Lou Nuer community were the subject of a forcible disarmament campaign by the SPLA in early 2006, which led to significant violence in parts of Uror and Nyirol counties, with Lou Nuer youth allegedly supported by commanders who had recently joined the SPLA (Alden and Arnold 2007; Young 2007).

As the CPA era progressed, escalating conflict affected parts of the Lou Nuer, Dinka, and Murle communities of Jonglei State (ICG 2009). Despite periodic conflict between armed groups from the Dinka and Lou Nuer, elements of the two communities would co-operate during large-scale raids into predominantly-Murle parts of Pibor in 2011 (with the Lou Nuer earlier conducting significant raids into Pibor in 2009). In August 2011, large numbers of Lou Nuer civilians were reportedly killed during attacks by armed groups from the Murle community in Uror (Small Arms Survey 2012). Many Lou Nuer youth also joined George Athor’s rebellion in 2010 and 2011, returning home with weapons and ammunition they used when they joined ‘white armies’ (discussed below) in Pibor in December 2011. In late 2011 and early 2012, a series of reprisal attacks into Nyirol by Murle militia were reported (UNMISS 2012, pp.21-22).

Nyirol county during the civil war (2013-18)

At the outset of the national conflict (2013-2018), elements of the Lou Nuer community responded to the outbreak of violence in Juba in December 2013 with community-based defence groups and formal military members quickly joining the push towards Juba via Bor (discussed further in the profile for Bor South County). A former South Sudan Defence Forces commander, Peter Gatdet, initially led the opposition forces (that would become known as the SPLA-IO) in Jonglei in late 2013, with many Nuer officers and soldiers defecting to the opposition in the early stages of the conflict (Young 2015). Additionally, the ‘white armies’ mobilized to defend their communities. ‘White’ armies are distinguished from ‘black’ armies in that the white armies are informal, and the black armies are the organized, uniformed forces.

Nyirol County was not among the frontlines of the national conflict; however, it is located near areas most affected by violence across the Sobat River and in western and northern Jonglei State. While many Lou Nuer from Nyirol have participated in the civil war, Nyirol’s remote and inaccessible location limited the ability of the SPLA to make inroads into the county. However, the SPLA seized the comparatively accessible town of Waat in April 2017 after two months of fighting. The Commission on Human Rights reported that armed forces fired upon civilians (causing them to flee Waat), and destroyed civilian and NGO property alongside food supplies (UNCHR 2020, p.25). Further fighting in and around Waat involving opposition forces against the SPLA and allied forces took place in October 2017. The white armies involved in the fighting in Waat in 2017 were reported to have sustained heavy casualties (Craze 2020, p.76). Notably, while much of the Murle community from the newly established Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) remained loyal to the government, they did not engage in organized attacks on the Nuer areas as part of the civil war effort. Murle authorities were keen to maintain improved relations with the Lou Nuer and avoid being dragged into the national conflict, and took steps to return stolen cattle and punish Murle raiders when raids did occur (Felix da Costa et al. 2022, p.235).

Nyirol county after the R-ARCSS (2018-)

In recent years, cattle-related violence has escalated in Nyirol. In western Nyirol, 15 people were killed in clashes between the Lou and Gawaar Nuer, after Gawaar Nuer raiders allegedly crossed the border from Ayod and attacked a cattle camp in Pulturuk Payam (Radio Tamazuj 2022). In other parts of the county, a series of raids and ambushes attributed to Murle youth have taken place since the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018. This has extended to northern areas of the county, with Murle raiders following the tracks of Lou Nuer pastoralists from Uror and Walgak Payam (in west Akobo County) who migrate with their cattle north towards the Sobat. Although Murle raiders have been active in several parts of Nyirol (particularly youth from the area of Nanaam in north-west Pibor County), attacks are often attributed to the Murle based upon little or no evidence, with some attacks later transpiring to be instances of intra-Nuer fighting or raiding.

After the formation of the R-TGoNU in February 2020, power alliances within Jonglei shifted, fuelling large-scale subnational conflict between parts of the Dinka, Nuer and Murle. In early 2020, a series of small-scale Murle raids into several Dinka and Nuer areas of Jonglei State – including a serious raid into Nyirol (Radio Tamazuj 2020) – overlapped with tensions relating to the reconstitution of the GPAA as part of the post-R-ARCSS governance arrangements. This resulted in organised armed groups comprising parts of the Dinka (mainly from Twic East and Duk counties) and Lou and Gawaar Nuer communities engaged in attacks in various locations around Pibor, with Lou Nuer forces occupying Lekuangole. UNMISS Human Rights Division (HRD) verified that at least 51 Murle villages and settlements were attacked or occupied in late February and early March 2020 (UNMISS/HRD 2021, p.6). In response, an estimated 7,000 Murle fighters reportedly attacked Pieri in Uror County in May, which had been left largely unprotected. The Murle attack drew in Lou Nuer elements of the SSPDF and SPLA-IO to defend the area (UNMISS/HRD 2021, p.6), with hundreds reportedly killed (Al Jazeera 2020). Alleged reprisal attacks by Dinka and Nuer militiamen (numbering 17,000) in Pibor were reported between June and August, with Murle militia recovering some abductees and cattle stolen by the attacking groups after they were forced to withdraw from Pibor once the rains arrived. UNMISS HRD estimated that at least 738 persons were killed and 320 wounded during months of violence, and also alleged the involvement of elements of the military and security services in providing support to the belligerents, alongside planning and support from elites with connections to the communities in question (UNMISS/HRD 2021, pp. 10-12).

Between March 2021 and late 2022, the Pieri Peace Agreement reduced (though did not eliminate altogether) violence and raiding between the Murle and the Dinka and Nuer, as is discussed in further detail in the profile for Pibor County. However, raids increased in Nyirol between February and May 2022, with authorities implicating Murle raiders in the attacks. In late December 2022 and January 2023, large numbers of Dinka and Nuer militia from south-western and northern Jonglei (alongside some Nuer militia from Ethiopia’s Gambella Region) attacked areas to the west and north of Pibor town, with over 300 people reported killed in the ensuing fighting and attacks (UNMISS HRD 2023). The raid into the GPAA was characterized by significantly more abductions of Murle than usual. While Murle armed youths mobilized to defend their community, groups of armed Murle youth reportedly launched attacks in Nyirol county on 26 December. In the first half of January 2023, suspected Murle groups attacked Duk Padiet in Duk county, Waat in Nyirol, and Walgak in Akobo, alongside raids in parts of Uror. Since this time, there have been a number of low-level attacks, cattle raids, and abductions in Nyirol County, which have often been attributed to the Murle by authorities in Nyirol. Note that the tendency for raids and abductions in and around Jonglei to be attributed to the Murle is discussed further in the profile for Pibor County.

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams listed in Government and UN documents: Thol (County Headquarters), Chuil, Nyambor, Pading, Pulturuk, Waat

Additional payams listed by local actors: Majok

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

Roads:

• A secondary road runs southwards from Lankien town to Waat town. According to the Logistics Cluster, the road was impassable in both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
• A secondary road runs northwards from Lankien towards Khorfulus in Canal/Pigi County (and ultimately connects to Malakal town), however season road conditions are unknown.
• A primary road from Ayod town (Ayod County) becomes a secondary road at Waat town, and runs east to Akobo County. The entire road was impassable in the rainy season of 2022, though was passible with difficulty between Ayod and Pathai.

UNHAS-Recognized Hel-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Lankien

Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Pading, Pulturuk

REFERENCES

Al Jazeera. (2020). Hundreds killed in inter-communal clashes in South Sudan. Retrieved 27 October 2023.

Arnold, M. and Alden, C. (2007). “This Gun is our Food”: Demilitarising the White Army Militias of South Sudan. NUPI working paper. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Craze, J. (2020). The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan, 2005-2020. LSE. Retrieved 8 December 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.

Felix da Costa, D., Pendle, N. and Tubiana, J. (2022). ‘The growing politicisation and militarisation of cattle-raiding among the Western Nuer and Murle during South Sudan’s civil wars’ in Bach, J-N. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on the Horn of Africa, pp.224-238. Abingdon: Oxfordshire.

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

ICG. (2009). Jonglei’s Tribal Conflicts: Countering Insecurity in South Sudan. Retrieved 27 September 2023.

IRNA. (2020). Nyirol-Thol payam flooding in Jonglei State Sept 13^th, 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Johnson, D.H. (2003). The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars. Oxford: James Currey.

OCHA. (2021). Humanitarian Needs Overview: South Sudan 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

NOREF. (2013). Murle Identity and Local Peacebuilding in Jonglei State, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

OXFAM. (2016). Emergency Response: Lankien Base South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

PACT Sudan. (2006). Sudan Peace Fund (SPF): Final Report October 2022 – December 2005. USAID.

Radio Tamazuj. (2020). Clashes in Nyirol County leaves 15 dead. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). SPLA-IO generals arrested in Nyirol County, Jonglei. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2022). Jonglei: Tension high in Nyirol, Ayod after deadly inter-communal fighting. Retrieved 9 December 2023.

REACH. (2019). Situation Overview: Jonglei State. “There is nothing left for us”: starvation as a method of warfare in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNCHR. (2020). “There is nothing left for us”: starvation as a method of warfare in South Sudan. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2012). Incidents of inter-communal violence in Jonglei State. Retrieved 9 December 2023.

UNMISS HRD/Human Rights Division. (2021). Armed Violence Involving Community-Based Militias in Greater Jonglei: January – August 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNMISS HRD/Human Rights Division. (2023). UNMISS Brief on violence affecting civilians (January – March 2023). Retrieved 20 July 2023.

Young, J. (2007). Sudan People’s Liberation Army: Disarmament in Jonglei and its implications. Institute for Security Studies. Retrieved 8 December 2023.

Young, J. (2015). A Fractious Rebellion: Inside the SPLM-IO. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 9 December 2023.

REPORTS on NYIROL

Breidlid, I. and Arensen, M. (2017). ‘The Nuer White Armies: Comprehending South Sudan’s most infamous community defence group’ in Saferworld, Informal armies: Community defence groups in South Sudan’s civil war, 27-40. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Craze, J. (2023). A Pause Not a Peace: Conflict in Jonglei and the GPAA. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Gordon, R. (2014). In the eye of the storm: An analysis of internal conflict in South Sudan’s Jonglei State. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Maxwell, D., et al. (2014). Researching livelihoods and services affected by conflict. Livelihoods, access to services and perceptions of governance: An analysis of Uror and Nyirol counties, South Sudan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

Medair. (2022). Lankien and Pultruk of Nyirol County Assessment Report. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2012). Incidents of Inter-Communal Violence in Jonglei 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.