Ikotos

Ikotos/Ikwoto County, Eastern Equatoria State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 84,649

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 61,228

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 107,047

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 61,229

2024 IPC population estimate: 110,258

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 111,148

Ethnic groups:

Logir, Lokwa (Lokwaa), Dongotono, Imotong, Ketebo, and Lorwama (collectively known as “Lango”)**

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 6,336 IDPs (-2,039 Sept. 2023) and 11,533 returnees ( -3,517 Sept. 2023)

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

Economy & Livelihoods

Ikotos County – also known locally as Ikwoto County – is located in Eastern Equatoria State. It borders Torit County to the northwest, Budi County to the northeast, and has a narrow border with Magwi County to the west. It also shares a border with Uganda to the south. The Imatong Mountains run from Torit in the north through Ikotos County toward Uganda and contain the highest elevation in South Sudan. Historically, Ikotos’ forests were expansive; however, this has decreased in recent years. This decline has occurred in part due to deforestation, as natural resources are often extracted without regulation and transported across the Ugandan border for sale.

The county is classified as part of the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). A 2018 report estimated that 80% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018), and the same figure was reported in 2021 data (FAO/WFP 2022). In 2021, gross cereal yields were estimated at 1.15 tonnes per hectare, rising to 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Farmers in the area cultivate a variety of crops, including millet, cassava, sweet potatoes, onions, cabbage, maize, tobacco, and sorghum.

Forestry was previously a viable livelihood; however, resource depletion has reduced its viability as an income-generating activity compared with forested areas in other parts of South Sudan. Cattle-rearing is also a primary livelihood among the Lango communities in Ikotos. Sustained insecurity in the area since the 1980s, from multiple sources, has inhibited economic development and stability. Poverty and unemployment remain challenges, particularly for male youth, who resort to cattle raiding to obtain food and cattle for dowries. Additionally, insecurity has prevented long-term cultivation and limited the importation of goods to supply local markets.

The IPC projected the county to be in a crisis (IPC level 3) of food insecurity in November 2024, with conditions expected to persist at that level until July 2025.

Infrastructure & Services

The county headquarters are located in Ikotos Town, in Ikotos Payam.

Ikotos County is home to twelve () Early Childhood Development centers, fifty-eight (58) primary schools and eight (8) secondary schools.

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Ikotos County had twenty-eight (28) health facilities, of which twenty-eight (28) were functional. These functional facilities comprised twenty-three (23) primary health care units (PHCUs), four (4) primary health care centers (PHCCs), and one (1) hospital. This translates to approximately 3.1 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1.8 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time, placing Ikotos among the ten counties with the highest PHCUs/person ratios in South Sudan. St. Theresa Isohe Mission Hospital was reported to be moderately functional.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, an estimated 44,416 people in Ikotos County are in need, representing approximately 40% of the county’s total population as reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that an estimated 31,254 people were in need in Ikotos County, of whom 22,338 were non-displaced, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. Water points are insufficient, forcing women to travel long distances to obtain water for their households and undermining health outcomes in the county. Access to mobile phone networks in Ikotos County has also been a challenge for residents, with all networks suspended in 2016 following clashes with government forces.

Conflict Dynamics

Historically, communal clashes between different sub-groups of Lango and with neighboring groups, such as Lotuko, Toposa, Didinga, and Boya, have been observed in Ikotos County. These have primarily revolved around land and water sources for agriculture and cattle grazing during the dry season. These clashes also include cattle raids, which have reportedly increased in the post-CPA period as the bride price inflated and demand for cattle rose (Ochan, 2007). Most conflict over land and grazing occurs in Kidepo Valley, an area with year-round water and green pasture, a major attraction for pastoralists.

The introduction of SPLA forces and other armed factions into the area in the 1980s, along with the county’s proximity to Uganda, led to increased militarization and mobilization of communities, heightened intercommunal violence, and the area’s entanglement in broader conflicts. During the Sudanese civil wars, farmers in Ikotos struggled to maintain their crops. Markets in the area were poorly supplied due to insecure roads, and high poverty rates meant that many people could not afford the goods available. As a result, raiding other communities – such as the Lotuko of Torit County – for cattle became more frequent. High unemployment also contributed to banditry in the area. The combination of intercommunal violence, divisions within the SPLA, rising banditry and attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and local defense forces raised in response to the conflict led to higher mortality and looting across the state in the years leading up to South Sudan’s independence in 2011, despite local peace initiatives. These factors also limited humanitarian workers’ access to the area in the 2000s.

Similarly, during the 2013 civil war, historical divisions between the SPLA and Equatorian communities led to the formation of opposition forces in the area, with active hostilities emerging as the conflict expanded from 2015 onward. Conflict between government forces and other armed groups, during which SPLA barracks were allegedly stormed by youth, led to displacement in late 2015 (Eye Radio, 2015). Continued clashes in 2016 led to the destruction of homes and the looting of livestock in Ikotos County, as well as increasing humanitarian needs in the area. According to Small Arms Survey, Ikotos County has experienced a re-intensification of fighting and a proliferation of armed groups and criminality since the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018. This intensification may both reflect and have contributed to the fragmentation of SPLA-IO and a range of other military, police, and armed groups in the area, as well as to the defection of high-profile politicians from the area in August 2021 (SAS, 2021).

Communal clashes stemming from cattle raiding have also been observed more recently in Ikotos County, with some raids crossing the border into Uganda in 2018. In 2021, feuding between members of the Lowara-Talla and Ikotos Central communities resulted in fatalities. The conflict strained relations among Ikotos’ communities, slowed the local economy, and made life difficult for traders, who feared traveling between marketplaces (UNMISS, 2021).

Administration & Logistics 

Payams: Ikotos (County Headquarters), Hatire, Imotong, Lomohidang North, Lomohidang South, Losite

UN OCHA 2020 map of IkotosCounty: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-ikotos-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

  • One primary road runs north from Ikotos town to Hiyala village (Torit County), eventually connecting to the Torit-Kapoeta Road. The road was designated as passable during the 2024 rainy season and the 2025 dry season. 
  • There is a secondary road running east to Chukudum town (via Kidepo) and another running south to the Uganda border (via Mosingo). Conditions on these roads are unknown.
  • A tertiary road network covers parts of northern Ikotos County. The condition of this network is unknown.

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

References

Eye Radio. (2015). Two killed in SPLA clashes with civilians in Ikotos. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2018). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

FAO/WFP. (2023). Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan. Retrieved 31 July 2023.

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

Muniru, J. (2019). Sociolinguistic assessment of Lango, Imotong, Logir, Okolie (Lorwama and Ketebo) and Dongotono speech varieties of Torit State, South Sudan: A summary of findings. SIL South Sudan.

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

Radio Tamazuj. (2022). Ikotos County political leaders resolve to end violence. Retrieved 12 March 2025.

Small Arms Survey. (2021). MAAPSS UPDATE 13 September 2021 SPLA-IO Split What’s new in the SPLA-IO? Retrieved 14 July 2023.

UNMISS. (2021). Community Leaders from Ikotos, Eastern Equatoria, highlight need for dialogue and reconciliation. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Reports on Ikotos

Daniel, R. (2018). Generating Sustainable Livelihoods and Leadership for Peace in South Sudan: Lessons from the Ground. Centre for Conflict Resolution. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Hodgkin, E. (2022). Letters from Isohe: Life on the edge in a school in South Sudan. London: City of Words.

Ngalamu, T., Subed, A., van Uffelen, G-J. (2021). Seed system resilience assessment in Ikwoto County,South Sudan: Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (REPRO) South Sudan Programme. Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation. Retrieved 11 March 2025.

Ochan, C. (2007). Responding to Violence in Ikotos County, South Sudan: Government and Local Efforts to Restore Order. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Simonse, S. (1992/2017). Kings of Disaster: Dualism, Centralism and the Scapegoat King in Southeastern Sudan. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

Small Arms Survey/HSBA. (2010). Symptoms and causes: insecurity and underdevelopment in Eastern Equatoria. Retrieved 14 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 from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Population Working Group (PWG) figures, which are 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 are being used as the basis for the Common Operational Dataset (COD) for the UN system for the HNO 2024 and likely beyond. For further details on this and other sources used in the county profiles, see the accompanying Methodological Note.

** Note: “Lango” is a supra-ethnic (or umbrella) term for Logir, Lokwa, Dongotono, Imotong, Ketebo, and Lorwama. A sociolinguistic assessment by the Summer Institute of Linguistics reported that speakers said they had agreed to use “Lango” as an overarching term to identify themselves during South Sudan’s liberation struggle (Muniru, 2019). As in other parts of South Sudan, the terms residents use to identify themselves shift over time in response to efforts to resolve disputes and to changing political claims, administrative units, and perceptions of linguistic and social proximity. As a result, the terms residents of Ikotos County use to refer to themselves, both collectively and as subgroups, may change over time and vary across communities within the region (see Radio Tamazuj 2022).