Panyijar County, Unity State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 50,723
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 189,209
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 120,261

Ethnic groups: Nyuong Nuer

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 46,126 IDPs (+35,442 Q1 2020) and 19,676 returnees (+13,502 Q1 2020)

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

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Panyijiar County is located in the far south of Unity State. It borders Mayendit County to the north-west and Leer County to the northeast. It also borders Jonglei State across the Nile to the east, and Lakes State to the west and south.

The county forms part of the Nile-Sobat Rivers livelihood zone. The majority of Panyijiar County’s eastern portion falls within the Sudd wetlands. The geography is characterized by green vegetation (including papyrus, reeds and elephant grass), black cotton soils and wetland features on the east side. On the west side, the county is characterized by sandy clay soil and rolling scrubland. The Moch River runs across Panyijiar County’s southeastern portion. During the rainy season, parts of the county are often flooded, including areas near the Moch River, its southwest corner and its eastern edge, which borders the Supiri River.

Residents traditionally engage in cattle-keeping, agriculture and fishing as their predominant means of livelihoods. A 2013 IOM assessment found that the livelihood practices include 34% farming, 34% livestock rearing, and 30% fishing. Recent FAO/WFP data that gross cereal yields were at 0.6 tonnes per hectare in 2022, though there is no updated information on the percentage of households engaged in farming in Panyijiar (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). Crops include sorghum, maize, groundnut and cowpeas, with vegetables (such as okra, pumpkin, tomatoes) being cultivated on a smaller scale.

In addition to cattle, residents also raise goats and sheep. Herds are moved towards the Nile and south on the borders with Lakes State from February to April, returning to their regular locations in May. Panyijiar County’s swamps and rivers provide opportunities for fishing. Sales of natural resources such as grass, reeds, charcoal and firewood help supplement the income of some households. One location of note is Taiyar, an island port on Lake Jorr where Dinka and Nuer traders operated side-by-side before the conflict. It was key trading hub for Lakes and Jonglei State goods into southern Unity.

A 2019 market study revealed that communities in Panyijiar traditionally relied on community structures to obtain resources such as food when food and economic insecurity were prevalent (Mercy Corps 2019). However, as resources have been depleted due to ongoing insecurity, traders are becoming more stringent in working with customers who are able to engage in cash-based transactions. As a result, people in the county have increasingly relied on humanitarian aid to support their households.

Food insecurity has been a consistent problem in the county, with the county’s IDP population being particularly affected. By 2017, the county was at risk of experiencing famine similar to neighbouring Leer County, due to hindered access for humanitarian organizations to provide food distributions. Since then, the return of humanitarian organizations and increased humanitarian interventions in the area have increased access to food. However, Panyijiar continues to experience emergency levels (IPC level 4) of food insecurity in a November 2022 IPC projection, and these levels were predicted to continue throughout the first half of 2023. During both the latter months of 2022 and throughout the first two quarters of 2023 at least 25% of households in Panyijiar were expected to meet between 25% and 50% of their caloric needs from humanitarian food assistance.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The county headquarters is located in Panyijiar Payam. The Nile River and its swamps are the main transport routes for commercial goods and human mobility in and out of Panyijiar County., and Development has been hindered by both the functional remoteness of the area and decades of conflict.

Panyijiar County is home to eight (8) Early Childhood Development centres, forty-eight (48) primary schools and three secondary schools: Ganyliel Secondary, Panyijiar Secondary and Nyal Secondary located in Ganyliel, Kol and Nyal payams respectively. School infrastructure in the county was badly affected by the government decision to stop financially supporting schools located in opposition areas during the South Sudanese civil war.

Panyijiar County was reported to have thirty-five (35) health facilities, all of which were reported to be functional. Among them are thirty-one (31) PHCUs and four (4) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.87 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.25 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Panyijiar County. The destruction of facilities during the conflict and widespread displacement significantly reduced access to healthcare.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there are 96,208 people in Panyijiar County with humanitarian needs (compared to 93,700 in 2021), which represents 80% of the estimated population for the county reported in the HNO. Needs are particularly severe in the areas of protection and child protection, and as Oxfam noted in 2019, 71% of girls are married before the age of 18.

Panyijiar County received a significant influx of IDPs during the onset of fighting in 2013, particularly to Ganyliel town, Nyal town, and their surrounding islands. By the end of December 2015, an estimated 2,500-3,500 IDPs were living in the swamps northeast of Nyal town alone. For example, by June 2014, local authorities say approximately 2,000 IDPs from Panyijiar had arrived in Rumbek Centre County. The two communities reportedly had good relations historically, although cattle raids from Lakes State have been reported. In 2015, IDPs fleeing from the fighting in Mayendit and Leer arrived in Panyijiar, placing additional stress on existing infrastructure and services.

In 2021, Panyijiar was recognized as a flood-affected county by the Emergency Response Coordination Center. The slow recession of the 2020 floodwaters coupled with the onset of seasonal rainfall in July 2021 led to flooding that affected at least 31,245 people. The flooding destroyed livelihoods, shelter, markets, and infrastructure while worsening the already precarious humanitarian situation.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Panyijiar County, sharing its southern and western border with Lakes State, has been a longstanding site for both violence and cooperation between neighbouring Dinka and Nuer communities. The county has historically experienced insecurity as a result of cattle raiding, disputes over access to water and land for grazing animals, as well as the high proliferation of small arms along the borders.

Panyijiar County is part of the group of southern Unity counties from which the opposition has drawn its main support. It was contested following the outbreak of civil war in December 2013, though it remained primarily under SPLA-IO control. Throughout 2014 and 2015 SPLA forces attempted to push the opposition out of Panyijiar County through a series of offensives, without success. In January 2014 the SPLA-IO established an administrative system in Panyijiar, similar to other counties in southern Unity it controlled, however Panyijiar County is the only county in Unity state that was fully controlled by the SPLA-IO. Recruitment of child soldiers by SPLA-IO forces was reported by NGOs through to mid-2019 (Interview with NGO personnel).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Panyijiar (County HQ), Ganyiel, Kol, Mayom, Nyal, Pachaar, Pachak, Pachienjok, Thoarnhoum, Tiap

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

Roads:

• Two secondary roads running south-east from Mayendit County meet in western Panyijiar County, before continuing to Rumbek town in Rumbek Centre County (Lakes State) to. The road was designated impassable within Panyijiar County in both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023, though was “passable with difficulties” within Rumbek Centre County during the same time period.
• A tertiary road network covers parts of the south-east of the county, extending into Yirol East County in Lakes State. The condition of these roads is unknown.
• A river route runs north-south in eastern areas of the county, connecting Bor to northern areas of Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states, with ports serving the inland towns of Ganyiel (at Taiyar) and Nyal.

UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Ganyliel, Nyal

REFERENCES

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. (2015a). ‘“We Can Die Too”: Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Human Rights Watch. (2015b). ‘“They Burned It All”: Destruction of villages, killings and sexual violence in Unity State South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

IRNA. (2021). ‘Inter-agency Flood Assessment Panyijiar County, Unity State, August 2021’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Mercy Corps. (2019). ‘The Currency of Connections: Why Local Support Systems are Integral to Helping People Recover in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

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

Oxfam. (2019). ‘Born to be Married: Addressing Early and Forced Marriage in Nyal South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021a). ‘SPLM-IO nominated commissioner of Panyijiar County rejected by community’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021b). ‘8 people killed in Lakes State cattle raid’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

REPORTS on PANYIJIAR

Dragicevic, H. (2017). ‘Everything except the soil: understanding wild food consumption during the lean season in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Foreign Policy. (2016). ‘“They Will Find Us and Kill Us”: From murder to mass rape, a special report from the front lines of South Sudan’s civil war (Nyal)’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Humphrey, A., Krishnan, V., & Krystalli, R. (2019). ‘The Currency of Connections: Why local support systems are integral to helping people recover in South Sudan’.  Mercy Corps and Tufts University. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Mercy Corps. (2014). ‘The story of Ganyiel: A safe hiding place’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Oxfam. (2019). ‘How a canoe program is saving lives and livelihoods in South Sudan (Nyal)’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Santschi, M. and Ninrew, J. (2023). ‘Working together for peace: Lessons learned from supporting local conflict prevention & resolution’. Swisspeace. 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.