Twic County, Warrap State
Demographics
2008 NBS Census population: 204,905
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 433,795
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 270,934
2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 433,796
2024 IPC population estimate: 279,062
2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 291,675
Ethnic groups: Twic Mayardit Dinka (Adiang, Akuar, Amiol, Chobok/Mabok, Kuac and Thon)
Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 52,737 IDPs (-16,017 Sept. 2023) and 136,849 returnees (+47,991 Sept. 2023)
IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December 2024 to March 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4); April 2025 to July 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4)
Economy & Livelihoods
Twic County is located in Warrap State. It borders Gogrial West County to the southwest and Gogrial East County to the southeast. It also borders Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State (Aweil East County) to the west, Abyei Administrative Area to the north and Unity State (Abiemnhom and Mayom counties) to the east.
The county is categorized under the western floodplains sorghum and cattle livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). The River Lol flows from Gogrial West (where it is called Akon River) through Twic County (where it is called the Wunrok River) into Unity State. Some areas of Twic County are completely inaccessible during the state’s rainy season (July-December) with up to 70% of the county under water. In 2018 it was reported that 55% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/ WFP 2018), increasing to 60% in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). Other primary livelihoods include cattle rearing, fishing and other activities, including trading. The county’s major crops include sorghum, maize, groundnuts, simsim (sesame), vegetables, millet and cassava. In 2021, gross cereal yields were estimated to be 0.9 tonnes per hectare, increasing to 1 tonne per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). A 2019 FAO and WFP report noted the use of ox-ploughs in the area, which assists in cultivating higher crop yields.
In November 2022, the IPC projected Twic County as being at an crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity, with conditions projected to deteriorate to emergency (IPC level 4), remaining at emergency levels from December 2025 through July 2025. A 2020 REACH assessment found that residents in 43% of assessed settlements were coping with a lack of food by consuming wild foods that are known to make people sick and residents in 64% of settlements reported their hunger was severe or the worst it can be; these estimates declined to 39% and 27% (respectively) in REACH’s 2022 assessment.
Due to its proximity to Abyei, market access is linked to Sudan; however, regular insecurity has disrupted the movement of supplies. Unusual rainfall patterns and prolonged dry spells have also impacted the ability of households to maintain household food supplies through cultivation and displaced cattle herds on which communities were reliant for milk to supplement their diet. Inflation in the local markets, such as Turalei and Wunrok, has made goods unaffordable for many, leading households to increasingly forage for wild foods. Others have opted to migrate to Abyei and Sudan to find other means of livelihoods and income generation.
Infrastructure & Services
Between 2015 and 2020, Twic County was administered as part of Twic State and further sub-divided into six counties, though the county was re-integrated into Warrap State when the government reverted to the 10-state arrangement in February 2020. Under the 28- (and then 32-) state system, the administrative headquarters was controversially moved from Turalei to Mayen-Abun, becoming a source of significant tension (Eye Radio 2019; UNMISS 2019). The headquarters reverted to Turalei with the restoration of the 10-state system in 2020. During a meeting of chiefs in 2021, objections to the relocation of the headquarters to Turalei were seemingly dropped by chiefs from the Mayen-Abun area (The Radio Community 2021).
Twic County is home to three (3) Early Childhood Development centres, two hundred and forty-four (244) primary schools, and seventeen (17) secondary schools located across the county. A technical and vocational training centre, Wunrock TVET Centre, is located in Wunrok Payam. Twic County has among the largest number of primary schools in the country, though still well behind Juba County’s 570.
In December 2024, the WHO reported that Twic County had fifty-five (55) health facilities, of which thirty-one (31) were functional. These functional facilities included twelve (12) primary health care units (PHCUs), eighteen (18) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and one (1) hospital. This means there were approximately 0.62 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 3.09 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time. Mother Teresa Hospital was reported to be moderately functional. It is the largest health facility in the county, though is not accessible to all residents due to the poor conditions of the roads.
According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 203,954 people in need in Twic County, which represents approximately 70% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 305,102 people in need in Twic County, of whom 182,591 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, over 209,400 people in Twic County had humanitarian needs (up sharply from 145,100 in 2021), which was approximately 77% of the estimated population for Twic County reported in the HNO in that year. Over 103,000 of those in need were IDPs. The increasing needs were linked to the conflict between the Twic Dinka and Ngok Dinka that began in February 2022 (discussed below). The conflict has resulted in significant displacement among both communities, with tens of thousands of Twic Dinka IDPs being displaced within Twic County (MSF 2022). This level of need places significant pressure on local infrastructure and resources.
Conflict Dynamics
As with the Greater Tonj and Greater Gogrial areas, a significant number of influential political and military elites have come from the Twic Mayardit Dinka community (often abbreviated to Twic Dinka and not to be confused with the Dinka from Twic East County in Jonglei) of Twic County. Sitting along the border with the disputed Abyei area, Twic has been the site of cross-border migration. Pastoralists from parts of Warrap State, Unity State, and Abyei migrate during the dry season, in search of water in various parts of north-eastern and eastern Warrap State. Misseriya pastoralists from Sudan’s West Kordofan State and some adjoining areas also traditionally cross into Twic County during this time. These patterns have meant that Twic County has become embroiled in a number of cross-border conflicts which relate to the war-time or post-war political economy. Twic County was not directly affected by the national conflict (2013-2018). However, some recruitment into the military was reported in 2014, while recruitment into multiple security institutions increased in late 2018 and 2019 following the signing of the R-ARCSS (Boswell 2019, p.9, p.13; UN Panel of Experts 2019, p.12).
First, as noted above, Misseriya pastoralists from Sudan traditionally cross into Warrap State during the dry season. This has resulted in increased tensions and conflict over resources with local Twic Dinka communities, though levels of conflict are significantly lower than during the second Sudanese civil war during which the Twic Dinka were particularly affected by raiding from Khartoum-aligned Misseriya militias, contributing to conditions for famine in the area in the late 1980s and again in 1998, and laying the foundations for longer-term grievances between Twic and Misseriya communities. During the late 1980s, Twic County also hosted large numbers of Dinka Malual civilians (and significant numbers of cattle) that had been displaced during raiding by groups of Misseriya and Rizeigat pastoralists, as is discussed further in the profiles for Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State. SPLM/A soldiers and affiliated forces would provide armed resistance to raiding, though this would become less effective due to the partial formalisation of Misseriya militias into the Sudanese security apparatus under the Popular Defence Forces in 1998 (HRW 1999). Relations improved following an SPLM/A-organised peace conference in 2000 (Concordis International 2012, p.49), with more recent consultative conferences aimed at improving the relationship between the Dinka communities from Twic (and Gogrial West) and the Misseriya Awlad Kamil of Sudan occurring in September 2015. Since 2018, Twic County has participated in peace talks in Aweil East regarding cattle migration conducted by the Misseriya. In March 2021, six SSPDF soldiers were killed during an attack attributed to suspected Misseriya militiamen in Akoc Payam, in unclear circumstances (Radio Tamazuj 2021).
Second, cross-boundary clashes with armed groups from Mayom County in Unity State and armed groups from Twic have persisted since at least 2014. In 2014 and 2015, cattle raiders from Warrap State (allegedly supported by SPLA soldiers) launched raids into Mayom County, in spite of Mayom’s Bul Nuer military elite being aligned to the SPLA during the national conflict (Craze et al. 2016, pp.137-138). Though the Mayom–Warrap corridor was crucial to government supply lines during the conflict in Unity state from 2014 to 2016, cattle raiding between the Bul Nuer and the Twic Dinka continued. In 2015, large-scale cattle raiding into Mayom was reported involving youth from Twic and Gogrial East. The raids were able to capitalise on the participation of a number of Bul Nuer youth in ongoing offensives in southern and central parts of Unity, leaving Mayom relatively undefended.
Since the signing of the R-ARCSS, raids between Mayom and Twic have persisted, largely during the dry season when grazing routes intersect and pastoralists from both the Dinka and Nuer communities compete for access to the same land. Serious cross-border violence between Warrap and Unity states was reported in 2019 (UN HRC 2020, p. 32), which affected Twic County (Radio Tamazuj 2019). Security developments in Mayom further impacted Twic County in 2022. This included an attack on a Unity state government convoy heading to Mayom in Twic in May, which led Mayom youth to organize an attack on Twic County necessitating the intervention of senior officials to be halted (Craze 2022). Meanwhile, in July 2022 the SSPDF attacked positions belonging to the South Sudan People’s Movement/Army opposition group (discussed further in the Mayom County profile), including in eastern Twic (Radio Tamazuj 2022).
Third, serious conflict broke out along the Twic-Abyei border since early 2022. Prior to the conflict, disputes (often linked to rivalries during the second Sudanese civil war or the Comprehensive Peace Agreement-era) among some of the elite from both areas had been reported, though were supposedly resolved (Deng 2017). Historically, the Twic Dinka have had generally good relations with the Ngok Dinka of the disputed Abyei area, with high levels of intermarriage and living in shared spaces, whilst hosting displaced Ngok Dinka. However, in February 2022, intensifying political rhetoric over a new claim to territory under the control of the Ngok administration escalated into violent conflict. Recurrent attacks and arson displaced approximately 70,000 people from the newly disputed area around Agok and Aneet and led to the suspension of most NGO services in the area. Approximately 30,000 individuals were displaced north into Abyei town (mostly Ngok, but also Nuer and other Dinka sub-sections) while around 30,000 moved south into Twic County (mostly from the Twic Dinka), and others moved across to Aweil (including Malual Dinka returnees) and smaller numbers to Wau.
Violence continued between February and October 2022, killing and wounding significant numbers of people from both communities. Various interventions by senior elites in 2022 and early 2023 have not stopped the violence, which continued across early 2023 and escalated once again in autumn 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023). The increase in incidents coincides with the return of Ngok Dinka to disputed areas south of the Kiir River, from which they were displaced during the conflict. Serious cross-border attacks were reported in late November 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023c), while the deputy chief administrator of Abyei killed in a road ambush at the end of December (Radio Tamazuj 2024). Serious clashes were also reported in various parts of the Abyei area in early 2024 (Eye Radio 2024; The Radio Community 2024). The SSPDF has been increasingly drawn into the conflict, with military personnel reportedly targeted by Ngok Dinka militia, with Twic Dinka youth restricting SSPDF movement (Craze 2023, p.4; Eye Radio 2023). Security forces from both Sudan and South Sudan are reported to have a presence within the Abyei area, according to the UN Security Council (2023, p.2), though there is no indication that Sudanese forces are involved in the Ngok-Twic Dinka conflict.
Behind the conflict are a set of claims advanced by some representatives from the Twic community that all areas south of the Kiir River (a.k.a. Bahr al-Arab) along the disputed border with Sudan are part of Twic County, which includes Agok town and the Aneet area. While this is framed as a land dispute, this is more likely a conflict over economic resources (Craze 2023). Agok became a significant humanitarian hub in recent years, with the sizeable hospital employing hundreds of employees and, with a dozen other NGOs based in the town. Moreover, a significant border market was established in Aneet, on Abyei’s southern-most border. Taxation from both Agok and Aneet has been payable to the Abyei administration, with significant taxes also being made from checkpoints approaching it. Moreover, organisations based at Agok would solicit services from Ngok business and landowners, further increasing the area’s value. Additionally, claims that land south of the Kiir River is more fertile and receptive to cultivation than land in Twic County are advanced by Ngok stakeholders, although these have not been validated. The Twic community is made up of various sub-sections: within the Ngok-Twic conflict, the Ajak-Kuac Twic community have been one of the most involved groups, and it is this sub-section that specifically claims the area of Agok and view it the area as part of Twic County’s Ajak-Kuac Payam.
Administration & Logistics
Payams: Turalei (previous County Headquarters, currently disputed), Akoc, Ajak Kuac, Aweng, Wunrok, Panyok
UN OCHA 2020 map of Twic County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-twic-county-reference-map-march-2020
Roads:
- A primary road runs north-south from Wau in Western Bahr-el Ghazal State through Twic County. The road splits into two branches at Wunrok/Wun Roj, with one branch continuing due north to Abyei, and the other northeast through Turalei into Mayom County of Unity State. In the rainy season of 2024, the road was deemed passable between Wau and Wunrok/Wun Roj, with the Abyei and Mayom branches both designated as being ”passable with difficulties.” In the dry season of 2025, the branches were designated as being passable.
- Central and south-western areas of the county are covered by a network of tertiary roads, the conditions of which are unknown.
UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: None
References
Boswell, A. (2019). Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Concordis International. (2012). Crossing the Line: Transhumance in Transition Along the Sudan-South Sudan Border. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
Craze, J. (2022). ‘And Everything Became War:’ Warrap State Since the Signing of the R-ARCSS. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Craze, J. (2023). Attacked from Both Sides: Abyei’s Existential Dilemma. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
Craze, J., Tubiana, J. and Gramizzi, C. (2016). A State of Disunity: Conflict Dynamics in Unity State, South Sudan, 2013–15. Small Arms Survey/HSBA. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
Deng, F. (2017). Abyei Dialogue: Bottom Up and Top Down. The Sudd Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Eye Radio. (2019). Kiir directs Twic governor to resolve Mayen-Abun/Turalei wrangles. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Eye Radio. (2020). A dozen soldiers reportedly killed in Mayom. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Eye Radio. (2023). 5 killed as bandits raid SSPDF base in northern Warrap. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
Eye Radio. (2024). 53 killed, 64 wounded in multiple attacks on Abyei: Official. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
HRW. (1999). Famine in Sudan, 1998. The Human Rights Causes. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
MSF. (2022). Displaced people in Twic County need more assistance amid “terrible conditions”. Retrieved 18 July 2023.Radio Tamazuj. (2019). Twic clashes ‘claim dozens of lives’. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2021). 6 soldiers killed, 2 wounded by suspected armed Misseriya in Warrap. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2022). SSPDF, rebel clash leaves 10 dead and 9 wounded in Mayom County. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2023). 11 killed, 14 wounded in attack on Abyei’s Nyinkuec Market. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2024). Juba: MPs want inquest into Abyei administrator’s killing. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
REACH. (2020). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile – Twic County. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
REACH. (2022). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
The Radio Community. (2021). Chiefs unite to reconcile people in Twic. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
The Radio Community. (2024). Over 2,000 people seek UN protection in Abyei. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
UNMISS. (2019). Mayen-Abun declared capital of Twic following comprehensive, UNMISS-supported consultations. Retrieved 18 July 2023.UN HRC. (2020). Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, A/HRC/43/56. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
UN Panel of Experts. (2019). Final report of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan submitted pursuant to resolution 2428 (2018). Retrieved 19 October 2023.
UNSC, UN Security Council. (2023). Situation in Abyei: Report of the Secretary-General, S/2023/777. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
Reports on Twic
Craze, J. (2023). Attacked from Both Sides: Abyei’s Existential Dilemma. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
Deng, F. (2017). Abyei Dialogue: Bottom Up and Top Down. The Sudd Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Deng, F. (2022). A Personal Perspective on the Ngok-Twic Conflict in Abyei. The Sudd Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Rolandsen, Ø. H. (2019). Trade, peace-building and hybrid governance in the Sudan-South Sudan borderlands. Conflict, Security & Development, 19 (1), 79-97.
* 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.
