Lafon County, Eastern Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 106,161
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 85,212
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 157,151

Ethnic groups: Pari, Lopit, Tennet and Otuho/Lotuko (Loming)

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 17,551 IDPs (+2,677 Q1 2020) and 8,715 returnees (-2,293 Q1 2020)
IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December to March 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Lafon County is located in the north-western corner of Eastern Equatoria State. It borders Kapoeta North County to the east, Budi County to the south-east and Torit County to the south. It also borders Central Equatoria State (Juba and Terekeka counties) to the west and Jonglei State (Bor South and Pibor counties) to the north.

The county is categorized as being in the eastern plains sorghum and cattle livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). Residents of Lafon County practice agriculture, animal husbandry (cattle, goat and sheep), fishing and hunting as their primary livelihoods. In 2018 it was estimated that 85% of households engage in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018). The same estimate was reported in data from 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). In 2021, gross cereal yields were estimated to be 1.0 tonne per hectare, decreasing to 0.9 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Common crops in the county include sorghum, okra, sesame, cowpeas and tobacco. However, farming and fishing livelihoods are usually engaged with at or below subsistence levels. As a result, many households also rely on markets to meet their food needs.

There has been little change in IPC classification since 2016 as Lafon County continues to be categorized at Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels of food insecurity as of November 2022, and is predicted to remain at Crisis levels through mid-2023. While in previous years Lafon County’s crop yields have been affected by droughts in the area, in 2019 its livelihoods were impacted by unusually heavy rainfalls that led to flooding. Flooding continued to affect Lafon throughout 2020 and 2021 to a moderate extent. However, for the last four years, Lafon has been facing recurrent drought, with this year 2023 becoming the worst. Consequently, the area has hit by severe hunger and large numbers of people have been migrating to Torit, Juba and to IDP and refugee camps in search of food since June 2023 (Eye Radio 2023b; Radio Tamazuj 2023d). Ongoing clashes for several years in the area have also inhibited farmers from cultivating, which has impacted local food supplies, and making the population more reliant on markets and food distributions. However, the insecurity and financial crisis worsened by the civil war have made supplies in the markets sporadic.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES

The governance of Lafon has been highly contested since 2005. The county name was the source of disputes between the Pari and Lopit, with the former favouring the name Lafon and the latter the name ’Lopa’. This led to the creation of two administrative areas called ‘Lafon Corridor’ – run by a County Commissioner – and ‘Imehejek Corridor’ – administered by an Executive Director reporting directly to the State Governor. This dispute is discussed in more detail under conflict dynamics below. On 20 July 2023, the Governor decreed that a new ‘Imehejek Administrative Area’ was to be established in the eastern (Lopit) area of Lafon County, which would report directly to the Governor’s office (Radio Tamazuj 2023c). This followed suggestions to rename the county as ‘Lopa’ and subsequent lobbying by elements of the Lopit community for a new county in early 2023. The legality and implications of the move for the 2018 peace agreement remain to be determined.

Lafon County is home to the Mura Lopit Pre-primary school, the only Early Childcare development centre in the county. Lafon is also home to thirty-seven (37) primary schools. There are no secondary schools currently operating in the county.

Lafon County was reported to have twenty-eight (28) health facilities including twenty-seven (27) functional health facilities, among them twenty-four (24) PHCUs, two (2) PHCCs and one (1) hospital in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 2.20 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.64 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO. Imehejek County Hospital was reported to have moderate functionality.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, around 79,487 people in the county have humanitarian needs (up from 54,700 in 2021). This figure represents over 50% of the estimated population for Lafon County reported in the HNO.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Lafon is a strategic area due to its arable land, and functions as a food-producing area for militaries contesting territories to the north and northwest. A significant number of residents of the area – particularly from the Pari community – were recruited into the SPLM/A during the early years of the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005). This exposed the area to attacks from government forces, though also created divisions within the Pari community between groups aligned with the government and those who supported the SPLM/A (Kurimoto 1994; Walraet 2015, p.190). Some local SPLM/A forces reportedly acted in an autonomous capacity during the 1980s, and became enmeshed in localised and cross-border conflicts that affected the area (Kurimoto 1994, pp.102-4). Lafon was the initial headquarters of the SPLM/A in Southern Sudan in 1988, before the establishment of Torit as the movement’s operational headquarters in 1989. Disgruntled by their perceived marginalization following this move, some military commanders from the area joined the SPLM/A-Nasir faction in the 1991 split, bringing intense fighting to the area amidst a chronic food shortage. At the local level, some communities tried to stay out of the conflict through local agreements, but these often failed leaving them trapped to face hostilities from both sides (HRW 1993). Heavy handed responses from the SPLM/A faction led by John Garang against parts of both the Pari and Lopit communities affected relations with the local population (Walraet 2015, pp.182-84) and, as in other parts of the Equatorian region, this complicated relationship with the centre of power endures today.

Since the conclusion of the second Sudanese civil war in 2005, politics within the county has become polarised in the course of a long-running dispute between the Pari and Lopit groups regarding the name of the county and the structure of its administration (discussed below). Although antagonism and conflict has existed among the Lopit and Pari, positive interactions through trade as well as mutual assistance during times of crisis are important aspects of the relationship between the groups (Walraet 2015, p.189). In addition to the Pari and Lopit communities, the Tennet also have an established presence in the county, and reportedly have historically close relations with the Lopit (Walraet 2015, p.179, fn.336). However, as noted below, both conflict as well as reconciliation activities have been reported between the Lopit and Tennet communities in recent years. The Lopit have traditionally enjoyed close relations with the Otuho/Lotuko community (some of whom are present in Lafon County, in addition to the larger Otuho/Lotuko community based in Torit County), though limited cross-border raiding and ambushes have been reported in recent years. Meanwhile, the Pari have similarly close relations with the Lokaya community of Juba County (Walraet 2015, p.189).

The outbreak of the national conflict in Juba in December 2013 led to mass displacement of residents fleeing conflict to neighbouring counties, including Lafon. Following the outbreak of fighting in Juba in July 2016, opposition armed groups began to arrive in the Lafon area and fighting reportedly broke out on 15 August when the military came to retake Lafon town. The resulting insecurity displaced most of the town’s population. During the insecurity, there were reports of alleged forced recruitment by armed groups as well as forced displacement and heavy looting of nutrition supplies, medicines, schools and houses. While active fighting has remained largely contained since the signing of the 2018 R-ARCSS, the presence of armed groups and government soldiers continued to disrupt the area with insecurity on the roads interrupting livelihoods and at times resulting in the suspension of humanitarian activities.

Clashes between local militias, cattle raiding, and highway banditry are the primary security threats in the county. The historically sedentary Pari ethnic group tended to clash with arriving Lopit herds in the county’s south, and the county also experiences cross-boundary insecurity from some members of the neighbouring Murle and Toposa pastoralist communities who travel to Lafon’s flood plains during the dry season. The Tennet, who are ethnically similar to the Murle, are reportedly often accused of colluding with the Murle by the nearby communities when there is a suspected Murle attack close to areas that are predominantly inhabited by the Tennet. In recent years, there have been several notable incidents involving ethnically-organised militias. In July 2020, community leaders from Lafon reported that armed men (allegedly from Jonglei State) had attacked villages – including Tennet communities – around Arihilo/ Arilo Payam (Eye Radio 2020). In April 2023, following a dispute between the Lopit and Tennet communities, a peace dialogue was organised to resolve the issue. However, seven members of the peace delegation were killed in an ambush on their way back from Imehejek in April 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023a; Eye Radio 2023b). The incident resulted in an alleged reprisal attack in May 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023b).

Lafon County constitutes a significant area of the Bandingilo National Park, a home to thousands of wild animals. Despite the tourism potential, the area is facing problems in terms of insecurity and infrastructure, while wildlife-human conflicts relating to the destruction of farmland are reported. Some residents of Lafon hunt wild animals as a source of livelihood, which has brought them into conflict with the Wildlife Authority responsible for clamping down on poaching. For example, in January 2023, this resulted in the confiscation of a significant amount of bush meat and the arrest of suspected poachers, with SSPDF soldiers and the County Commissioner among those arrested (Eye Radio 2023a). In an incident which is suspected – though not confirmed – to be connected to the confiscation and arrests, some individuals reportedly damaged a plane belonging to a conservation NGO that works alongside the Wildlife Authority.

As with a number of areas of South Sudan, Lafon County has been affected by (sometimes contentious) processes of administrative reorganisation and (re)naming. The dispute escalated following an attempt to rename the county from ‘Lopa/Lafon’ to ‘Lafon County’ in 2009. The name ‘Lafon’ is used mostly by the Pari community living in the west of the county. However, some members of the Lopit community living mostly in the east of the county feel the name ‘Lafon’ favours the Pari community’s claim to the area. The contested location of the county headquarters also reflects this dispute, which were previously based at Imehejek (in an area populated largely by the Lopit community).

This dispute between the Pari and Lopit led to creation of two administrative areas in 2012 in an attempt to reconcile competing claims: the ‘Lafon Corridor’ (reflecting Pari claims) in the west of the county, and ‘Imehejek Corridor’ (reflecting Lopit claims) to the east. Some members of the Lopit and other communities have proposed that the name ‘Lopa’ is a more inclusive alternative name that reflects the presence of both Lopit (‘Lo’) and Pari (‘Pa’) communities. While some government and UN documents still use the name ‘Lafon’, other government documents have adopted the name ‘Lopa’. In February 2021, the Governor of Eastern Equatoria State convened the communities of Pari and Lopit, to discuss the county name and headquarters. In the spirit of compromise, the county was named Lafon with the headquarters remaining at Imehejek (Eye Radio 2021). This led to complaints by some Lopit communities who preferred the name Lopa. Subsequently, some Lopit youth allegedly expelled the Commissioner from Imehejek. In early 2023, the Lopit community presented a petition to President Salva Kiir through the State Governor requesting a separate county be established. After the President rejected their request, the Governor announced the establishment of the ‘Imehejek Administrative Area’ in the predominantly Lopit eastern area of the county in July 2023.

While the degree of contestation over the county name and headquarters is marked, the experience of Lafon County is also consistent with a number of other areas of South Sudan, and reflects more widespread perceptions regarding the relationship between administrative boundaries, power, and resources that exist among some groups in the country. These perceptions are rooted in the notion that the establishment and/or control of an administrative unit is a pathway to obtaining increased resources (including jobs) or services from central authorities (Leonardi 2013, pp. 182-84), and, conversely, fears of becoming marginalised in the event that administrative recognition goes unsecured (Walraet 2015, p.192). While the dispute has become a recent focal point for Lafon’s political dynamics, this may have led to other long-term processes and dynamics becoming neglected. These include internal divisions that exist within the affected communities, alongside the militarisation of some community defence groups (the monyomiji, initiated youth) that has occurred in the wake of the second civil war. These issues are also situated within a more generalised condition of underdevelopment of the area, and complex historical relationships between some local communities and central power, sometimes manifesting in fraught relations between the government and the monyomiji (Walraet 2015, p.194).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Arihilo, Burgilo, Imehejek (County Headquarters**), Kurumi, Lohutok, Longiro, Marguna, Pachidi

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

Roads:

• A secondary road connecting Juba and Lafon town was deemed impassable during both the rainy and dry season of 2022 and 2023, respectively. The same road heads south to Torit town has, and was designated “passable with difficulties” during the same time period.
• A secondary road runs between Lafon and the far east of Torit County via Imehejek town. This road branches off from the Lafon-Torit road about 20km south-east of Lafon town, at the start of the Lopit Hills. The condition of the road is unknown.

UNHAS-recognised Heli and Fixed-Wing Airplane Airstrips: None
Additional MAF-Recognised Airstrips: Lafon, Arilo/Lomorotok, Iboni, and Lokutok

REFERENCES

Eye Radio. (2020). Armed Jonglei youth ‘terrorize’ Lopa-Lafon. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2021). Lopa-Lafon communities agree to end 17-year dispute. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023a). 40 poachers arrested in Juba, 5,000 kgs of bush meat sized. Retrieved 19 September 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023b). 7 peace delegates killed in Lafon road ambush. Retrieved 14 September 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023c). Hunger-stricken Imehejek residents in EES flock to Juba City-Chief. Retrieved 19 September 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.]

HRW, Human Rights Watch. (1993). Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan. Retrieved 22 September 2023.IRNA. (2014). Initial Rapid Needs Assessment Report for Internally Displaced population in Lafon County. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Leonardi, C. (2013). Dealing with Government in South Sudan: Histories of Chiefship, Community and State. Oxford: James Currey.

Radio Tamazuj. (2021). Lopit, Toposa to embrace peaceful co-existence. Retrieved 14 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Governor Lobong blames NGO for death of Lafon peace delegation. Retrieved 28 August 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023b). Six killed in Lafon County ‘revenge attack’. Retrieved 24 September 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023c). Governor Lobong declares Imehejek an ‘Administrative Area’. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023d). TNLA-Eastern Equatoria legislators raise alarm over hunger in Lafon. Retrieved 19 September 2023.

Schomerus, M. and Allen, T. (2010). Southern Sudan at odds with itself: Dynamics of conflict and predicaments of peace. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

REPORTS on LAFON

Kurimoto, E. (1994). ‘Civil War & Regional Conflicts: The Pari and their Neighbours in South-eastern Sudan’ in Fukui, K. and Markakis, J. (eds) Ethnicity & Conflict in the Horn of Africa, pp. 95-111. London: James Currey.

Kurimoto, E. (1998). ‘Resonance of Age Systems in Southeastern Sudan’ in Kurimoto, E. and Simonse, S. (eds.) Conflict, Age & Power in North East Africa, pp. 29-50. Oxford: James Currey.

OCHA. (2016). Inter-agency Rapid Needs Assessment Report: Lafon, Eastern Equatoria (1-3 December 2016). Retrieved 14 July 2023.

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

Walraet, A. (2015). ‘Conflict and State-building in Lafon/Lopa, Eastern Equatoria State’ in Schomerus, M. (eds.) Conflict and Cooperation in the Equatorias, pp.173-199. AECOM/USAID.

* 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.

** Note: As noted in the conflict dynamics section, considerable complexity surrounds the administrative arrangements for Lafon County (Schomerus and Allen 2010, p.43), though it was reaffirmed in 2021 that Imehejek would remain the de jure administrative headquarters for Lafon (Eye Radio 2021). Following the announcement by the state Governor in July 2023 that a new Imehejek Administrative Area was to be established in the eastern side of the county, there has not been an official announcement regarding any potential relocation of Lafon County’s administrative headquarters to the western area of the county.