Aweil South County, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State
DEMOGRAPHY
2008 NBS Census population: 73,806
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 239,810
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 142,217
Ethnic groups: Rek Dinka (Malual: Paliet), Luo/‘Jur Chol’
Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 7,327 IDPs (-7,139 Q1 2020) and 8,751 returnees (-17,879 Q1 2020)
IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Emergency (Phase 4); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Emergency (Phase 4)
ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS
Aweil South County is located in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State. It borders Aweil Centre to the west and Aweil East to the north. It also borders Warrap State (Gogrial West County) to the east and Western Bahr el-Ghazal State (Jur River County) to the south.
The county falls under the western flood plains sorghum and cattle livelihood zone (FEWSNET 2018), with grassland, swampy areas with papyrus reed, and pockets of forest being found in this area. According to a 2018 report by FAO and WFP, approximately 70% of households are estimated to engage in farming, which remained the case in 2021. Gross cereal yields in the county were put at 0.7 tonnes per hectare in 2021 and 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023). The main crops in this region are sorghum, sesame, maize, groundnut and vegetables.
The economy of Aweil South – and Northern Bahr el-Ghazal more broadly – has undergone a major transformation towards markets and commercialisation of labour. Decades of conflict and insecurity within South Sudan and across the border in Darfur/Kordofan have accelerated pre-existing patterns of migration through forced displacement from Aweil to Sudan and elsewhere. The rapid repopulation of the area since the early 2000s placed the local markets and ecology under such pressure that cash, wages and markets became an increasingly vital means for survival. Periodic closures of the border with Sudan (with which local markets have been historically integrated), runaway inflation and insecurity since 2012 have further deepened this trend. This has been reflected in high levels of food insecurity, indebtedness and exploitation as part of agricultural labour or participation in armed groups (Kindersley and Majok 2019).
This structural economic transformation partly explains why food insecurity has continued to be a challenge for Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State despite its relative stability. Aweil South County was classified as being at Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity in November 2022, and is projected to improve to Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels between December 2022 and March 2022, before reverting to Emergency levels until at least July 2023.
Flooding is a regular concern for both agriculturalists and pastoralists. Aweil South County is the county most prone to flooding in Northern Bahr-el Ghazal State. Flooding in Aweil South has historically occurred around October/November as a result of riverbanks overflowing, at the time when most people have harvested most of their farm produce. However, changing weather patterns have meant that earlier onset of rains has increasingly flooded fields and destroyed crops before they are harvested. This happened in 2019 and again in 2021, when early onset rains began in May 2021 and continued steadily through to July 2021.
INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES
Aweil South’s county headquarters is located in Nyocawany Payam. While the county does not share a border with Sudan, its proximity means that insecurity and border closures have at times impacted trade and migration routes from the area.
Access to healthcare facilities also presents a challenge for Aweil South residents, particularly to alleviate the impact of food insecurity. Aweil South County was reported to have nineteen (19) health facilities including fifteen (15) functional health facilities, among them fourteen (14) PHCUs and one (1) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 1.48 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.35 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. No hospitals were reported in Aweil South County.
Aweil South is home to eighty-three (83) primary schools and Makel Alel Secondary School in Panthou payam. There are currently no Early Childhood Development centres in Aweil South.
OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023 indicated that nearly 93,000 people have significant humanitarian needs in Aweil South (down from 103,900 in 2021), which represents almost 65% of the estimated population for the county reported in the HNO.
CONFLICT DYNAMICS
Communal clashes have affected Aweil South County. In 2013, the county was a part of the Gogrial Agreement between four counties (Aweil East, Twic, and Gogrial West) to address communal clashes over grazing land, water sources and revenge attacks (PA-X, 2013). Additionally, in 2014 UNMISS facilitated a peace forum in the area to address tensions regarding county boundaries with Aweil East and Gogrial West (UNMISS, 2014).
ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS
Payams listed in Government and UN documents: Nyocawany I (County Headquarters), Ayai, Gakorl/Gakrol, Nyieth, Nyocawany II, Panthou, Tar-weng, Tiar-aleit, Wathmuok
Alternative list of payams provided by local actors: Nyocawany (County Headquarters), Ayai, Gakorl/Gakrol, Majok-Abyei, Nyieth, Panthou, Tiar-aleit, Wathmuok
UN OCHA 2020 map of Aweil South County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-aweil-south-county-reference-map-march-2020
Roads:
- A primary road that runs from Aweil town to Wau town (Western Bahr-el Ghazal State) is accessible in the far west of Aweil South. This road was deemed passable by the Logistics Cluster during both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
- A secondary road between Aweil town and Gogrial West County (Warrap State) runs across Aweil South via Panthou. The road was designated “passable with difficulties” during both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
- A network of tertiary roads covers much of the county, though conditions for these roads are unknown.
UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: None
REFERENCES
Eye Radio. (2022). Death toll rises to 24 in Misseriya attack in Aweil. Retrieved 18 July 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.
FEWSNET. (2018). Livelihoods Zone Map and Descriptions for the Republic of South Sudan (Updated). Retrieved 10 July 2023.
IRC. (2014). Integrated Nutritional Anthropometry and Mortality Surveys. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
IRC. (2018). Enabling treatment of severe acute malnutrition in the community: Study of a simplified algorithm and tools in South Sudan. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
IRNA. (2021). Multi-sectoral Rapid Flood Assessment Report – Aweil South -Northern Bahr el Ghazal. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Juba Monitor. (2022). Misseriya peace talks suspended in Aweil. Retrieved via Wayback Machine 18 July 2023.
Kindersley, N. and Majok, J. (2019). Monetized Livelihoods and Militarized Labour in South Sudan’s Borderlands. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
OCHA. (2021). South Sudan: Response scale-up for highly food insecure areas Situation Report No. 6 (As of 30 April 2021). Retrieved 18 July 2023.
PA-X. (2013). Gogrial Agreement (between Twic, Aweil East, Aweil South and Gogrial. Retrieved 18 July 2023
Radio Tamazuj. (2021a). Post-migration conference concludes in Aweil East. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Radio Tamazuj. (2021b). South Sudan, Sudan border reopening stalled. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Sudan Tribune. (2014). Sudan rivals clashes leave over 60 dead in N. Bahr el Ghazal. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
UNMISS. (2014). Aweil South learns about peace and conflict resolution. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
REPORTS on AWEIL SOUTH
Boswell, A. (2019). Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: Aweil South County Atlas. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
IOM DTM. (2023). Disability, Access & Inclusion Survey Aweil South County (July – August 2022). Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Kindersley, N. and Majok, J.D. (2020). COVID-19 in South Sudan’s Borderlands A view from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Kindersley, N. and Majok, J.D. (2020). Breaking Out of the Borderlands: Understanding migrant pathways from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Kindersley, N. (2018). Politics, power and chiefship in famine and war A study of the former Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Majok, J. D. (2021). War, Migration and Work – Agricultural labour and cross-border migration from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
Rift Valley Institute. (2020). South Sudan: Hussein Abdel Bagi deepens his control of the borderland. RVI Field Update 5. Retrieved 18 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.