Guit

Guit County, Unity State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 33,004

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 49,581

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 70,016

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 49,582

2024 IPC population estimate: 72,116

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 73,878

Ethnic groups: Western Jikany Nuer

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 23,970 IDPs (-8,199 Sept. 2023) and 5,871 returnees (+2,010 Sept. 2023)

IPC Food Security: November 2024 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2025 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2025 – Emergency (Phase 4)

Economy & Livelihoods

Guit County is located in Unity State. It borders Koch County to the south and Rubkona County to the west. It also borders Pariang County in the Ruweng Administrative Area to the north and Jonglei State (Fangak County) to the east.

The county falls under the Nile-Sobat Rivers livelihood zone classification. The geography is characterized by lush green vegetation (including papyrus, reeds and elephant grass), black cotton soils and swamp/wetlands. The Bahr el-Ghazal River flows through the county’s north while the White Nile tracks the eastern side of the county and defines its border with Fangak County in Jonglei State. In 2014, the county experienced serious floods which destroyed crops and homes and led to major livestock deaths. Serious flooding also affected the county in 2021, when it disrupted livelihood activities, damaged shelters, and contributed to higher disease burdens. The county has experienced protracted flooding since that time, though a flood resilience study carried out in 2024 found some improvement (REACH 2024)

Residents mainly engage in agriculture (36%), livestock rearing (34%), and fishing (19%) for their livelihoods, according to an IOM assessment (IOM 2013). More recent figures from the FAO/WFP indicate that an estimated 40% of households in Guit County are engaged in farming, with a gross cereal yield of 0.55 tonnes per hectare in 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022), decreasing to 0.5 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). The crops grown include sorghum, maize, groundnut and cowpeas, with vegetables (such as okra, pumpkin, tomatoes) being cultivated on a smaller scale. In addition to cattle, goats and sheep are also reared. Herds migrate towards the White Nile between February and April and return to rainy-season pastures in May. The county’s two main rivers provide ample fishing resources year-round, and some small-scale commercial fishing was taking place (UNDP 2012). Wild foods such as laloub nuts, water lily and leau nuts are also accessible.

Guit County has historically experienced some of the highest levels of food insecurity in South Sudan. In 2015, IPC projections placed Guit at Catastrophic (IPC Phase 5) level of food insecurity and by 2017 the county was considered to be experiencing a famine. This has alleviated slightly since the stabilization of the area in 2018 and 2019, and a November 2022 projection the IPC placed the county as being at a crisis (IPC level 3) level of food insecurity, with conditions projected to persist at the same level until March 2025, whereupon they are predicted to decline to emergency levels (IPC level 4) between April and July 2025. As of November 2022, over 25% of households in Guit were predicted to meet between 25% and 50% of their caloric needs from humanitarian food assistance, though projections for December 2022 to July 2023 indicate that fewer than 25% will require humanitarian assistance during this time period.

Infrastructure & Services

Guit was initially established as a county in 2005 and has its headquarters in Guit payam. Poor road conditions in most payams means residents have difficulty accessing markets, despite the county’s location next to the main trunk road linking Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei and Lakes states. The rainy season typically makes many of the roads impassable, with some payams being cut off completely. Such incidents have prevented the regular access of aid organizations, heightening humanitarian needs in the area.

Guit County hosts the Mala oil field, in production from at least 2010 until the civil war forced a shutdown in 2014, although the quality of the crude oil is reportedly low. Oil production in Guit County has affected water quality, with a 2013 study by Signs of Hope indicating that unsafe oil production practices had contaminated water used by thousands of residents and made it unfit to drink (cited in HSBA 2015). Much of the surface water in the area is either contaminated by oil or ‘saltwater’ from drilling processes, and many villages in Guit County lack boreholes and access to clean drinking water. Before the oil companies withdrew, many of the villages sourced their drinking water from water tankers provided by oil companies.

Guit County is home to one (1) Early Childhood Development centre, thirty-nine (39) primary schools, and one (1) secondary school, Guit Secondary School in Kuach Payam.

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Guit County had thirteen (13) health facilities, of which six (6) were functional. These functional facilities included three (3) primary health care units (PHCUs), three (3) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and no (0) hospitals. This means there were approximately 0.61 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 2.03 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 61,366 people in need in Guit County, which represents approximately 83% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 55,539 people in need in Guit County, of whom 11,941 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, there were 49,624 people in need in Guit County (compared to 44,300 people in 2021), which represented over 70% of the county’s projected population. Significant insecurity has led to numerous access restrictions for aid organizations, exacerbating humanitarian needs across the county.

Conflict Dynamics

A predominantly Jikany Nuer area, intercommunal and intergovernmental tension with neighbouring Rubkona County has been a long-standing dynamic affecting Guit County. The migration of Rubkona-based herds into Guit to access grazing lands during the dry season has often been characterised by cattle raiding and a wider deterioration of relations, which was exacerbated by the rapid mobilization and militarization along ethnic lines during the South Sudanese civil war. Unclear border demarcation has also caused friction between Guit, Rubkona and Pariang counties. A UNDP study from 2012 identified tension over border disputes and water sources as some of the key root causes of this violence. Disputes with Rubkona County over taxes collected for river transportation have led to tensions since 2013 and continue to this day.

Guit County is the home county of senior politician Taban Deng Gai and was on the frontline between government and opposition forces following the outbreak of fighting in December 2013. The oilfields of Guit also made seizing control of the area a key priority for both sides, which led to it exchanging hands multiple times in quick succession during the early stages of the war despite overall control by the opposition. The conflict’s impact on civilians was especially severe. The southern Unity offensives of 2014 and 2015 that utilised the access road from Bentiu via Guit to Thar Jar and Leer led to massive destruction and displacement, with a June 2015 UN assessment mission to Guit finding no standing or unburned tukuls between Bentiu and Guit. Amnesty International reported that individuals who fled violence in Rubkona, Guit, Koch and Leer counties consistently described government and non-uniformed forces, allegedly from the Bul Nuer section from Mayom, attacking their villages (Amnesty International 2015).

The northern and eastern edges of Guit are swampy, low-lying areas where people have historically gone to seek shelter in times of crisis. People have also driven their livestock towards Bentiu town in times of insecurity. By July 2015, more than 100,000 cattle had arrived in areas surrounding Bentiu town – mostly from Guit and other payams in Rubkona, according to FAO. Tens of thousands of cattle were also reportedly stolen from Guit, Koch, Leer, Mayendit and Panyijiar counties by both sides as part of May 2015 offensives, according to an IFC assessment.

Following the outbreak of fighting in mid-2016 and the split within SPLA-IO, divisions between Nuer clans in Unity State (mainly the Jikany and Dok against the Bul Nuer) were heightened, with militias and armed factions aligning with opposing factions. In 2017, reports emerged of the forced recruitment of young men and boys from Guit County, resulting in significant displacement to Bentiu PoC. A CIVIC report from 2016 also highlights the targeting of women and children in clashes, which was a new trend at the time. Youth militias were prevalent in the area, with different armed forces providing them weapons, looting cattle and serving as a paramilitary force for various armed factions. In November 2018, the UN Security Council reported that continued clashes between government and opposition forces was a direct violation of the Revitalised-Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS) signed earlier that year. Guit County has not featured heavily in reporting on violence and conflict in South Sudan since 2019.

Administration & Logistics

Payams: Guit (County HQ), Kedad/Kedet, Kuach, Kuerguini, Niemni, Nyathoar, Wathnyona

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

Roads:

  • Guit County has one primary road, which runs on the vertical axis alongside its western border, connecting the county to neighbouring Bentiu in Rubkona County and Leer town in Leer County. The road was deemed impassable during the rainy season of 2024 and “passable with difficulty” during the dry season of 2025.
  • A tertiary road in the Kuach area in the far south-west of the county connects the primary road to oil infrastructure. The condition of the road is unknown.
  • A river route along the Bahr el Ghazal River is served by Manga Port (ownership of which is disputed by Pariang County), which connects northern Unity State to the transport corridor along the River Nile.

UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: None

References

Amnesty International. (2015). ‘South Sudan: Escalation of violence points to failed regional and international action’. Retrieved 16 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). ‘’. Retrieved 16 March 2025.

Human Rights Watch. (2015). ‘Widespread Atrocities in Government Offensive’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

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

REACH. (2024). Situation Overview: Flood Resilience – Guit County, Unity State, South Sudan (August 2023). Retrieved 16 March 2025.

Small Arms Survey. (2015). ‘The Conflict in Unity State: Describing events through 9 April 2015’. Archived text version available here. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Reports on Guit

CIVIC. (2016). ‘“Those Who Could Not Run, Died”: Civilian Perspectives on the Conflict in South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Craze, J., Tubiana, J., & Gramizzi, C. (2016). ‘A state of disunity: Conflict dynamics in unity state, South Sudan, 2013-15’. Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

DeSimone, S. (2013). ‘Post-Conflict Decentralization: Dynamics of Land and Power in Unity State – South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

Human Rights Watch. (2015). ‘“They Burned it All”: Destruction of Villages, Killings, and Sexual Violence in Unity State South Sudan’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

IOM. (2013). ‘Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas – Guit’. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

UNDP. (2012). ‘Community Consultation Report: Unity State, South Sudan’. No longer available online on 7 August 2023.

UNICEF. (2016). County Social Map: Guit. Retrieved 16 March 2025.

UNMISS/OHCHR. (2019). ‘Conflict-related sexual violence in northern unity: September – December 2018.’ 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.