Mundri West County, Western Equatoria State

DEMOGRAPHY

2008 NBS Census population: 33,975
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 52,385
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 49,763

Ethnic groups: Moru, Belle/’Jur Bel(i)’, Mundu, Moru/Moro Kodo**

Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 1,324 IDPs (-4,945 Q1 2020) and 22,440 returnees (+10,417 Q1 2020)

IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Crisis (Phase 3); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)

ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS

Mundri West is located in Western Equatoria State. It borders Mvolo County to the north, Mundri East County to the east, and Maridi County to the west. It also borders Central Equatoria State (Yei, Lainya and Juba counties) to the south.

The county is categorized as part of the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). As a part of South Sudan’s lush greenbelt zone, almost 60% of the population is estimated to practice agriculture as their primary livelihood (FAO/WFP 2018). This estimate had increased to 70% by 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). The main crops grown in Mundri West are sorghum, sesame (simsim), cassava, sweet potatoes, groundnuts, vegetables, maize, millet and rice. Fishing is also a viable livelihood activity in Mundri West. Gross cereal yields were estimated to be 1.0 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasing to 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023).

In November 2022, Mundri West County was determined to be experiencing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels of food insecurity. This is predicted to be maintained until at least July 2023.

A REACH assessment conducted in Q3 2020 found that residents in all settlements reported having physical access to a functional market. While this mirrors the relatively stable food security conditions of Western Equatoria compared to the rest of the country, the impact of erratic rainfall, flooding, supply-chain shortages and insecurity continue to pose a threat to the community resilience. Additionally, destruction of crops and displacement resulting from sustained clashes since 2015 has made it challenging for farmers to ensure land-access during key periods of planting and harvesting. In June 2021, residents of Gulu and Mbara bomas relocated to Mundri town as a result of insecurity and a lack of basic services.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES

The county’s headquarters is located in Mundri town in Mundri Payam. The county headquarters also hosts a large market at the intersection of roads to Rumbek, Yambio and Juba, that serves much of the state. The spread of the national conflict to Mundri West from 2015 led to continued clashes in the area which destroyed much of the county’s infrastructure and services, including schools, healthcare facilities and water sources. Insecurity has also impacted trade and transportation routes which pass through the county, leading to unpredictable closures of the main trading roads, thereby limiting the ability to maintain and rehabilitate the critical infrastructure and services that the county’s residents rely on.

Mundri West County is home to twenty-four (24) Early Childhood Development centres, forty-nine (49) primary schools and six (6) secondary schools. Five (5) secondary schools are located in Mundri Payam while Kotobi Secondary is located in its namesake payam.

Mundri West County was reported to have twenty-three (23) health facilities, nineteen (19) of which were reported to be functional. Among them are seventeen (17) PHCUs and two (2) PHCCs in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 5.13 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 2.01 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Mundri West as among the ten counties with the highest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. No hospitals were reported in Mundri West County.

According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023, 25,016 people in the county have humanitarian needs, which represents approximately 52% of the estimated population for Mundri West County reported in the HNO. Recurrent conflict has displaced some residents up to ten times during the civil war (REACH 2019). While Mundri West was not severely impacted by flooding in 2021, it was significantly affected in 2020. A September 2020 IRNA found that a total of 22,196 individuals (3,699 households) were displaced by the flooding. IDPs were found to have reduced access to food, a lack of safe and clean drinking water and sanitation, to be living in unhygienic conditions in overcrowded settlements and to be engaging in negative coping strategies such as skipped days between eating.

CONFLICT DYNAMICS

Sitting along the border region between Western and Central Equatoria states, the greater Mundri area has been affected by growing polarisation between agriculturalist and pastoralist communities, as forms of localised and national violence have increasingly intersected with one another. Dispute resolution mechanisms that once helped ensure generally peaceable relations have been gradually replaced with institutions that have not commanded widespread local support, pushing apart agriculturalist and pastoralists communities. Moreover, friction between some residents of the area and local and national authorities – and the emergence of local community protection forces – have further complicated these dynamics.

As a result of the friction generated by these processes, political discontent in parts of Mundri East and Mundri West counties (referred to here as greater Mundri) has risen, drawing greater Mundri into the recent national conflict. Within Mundri West, a number of population centres – and in particular Mundri town itself – became focal points for conflict and displacement after 2015, with IDPs often being re-displaced as fighting spread across the county.

Greater Mundri during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005)

There was significant fighting in the greater Mundri area at the outset of the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) (Johnson 2003, pp.70, 86), and by the late 1980s the wider Mundri area provided many recruits to the SPLM/A. However, strains between some local residents and the SPLM/A reportedly emerged due to problems relating to conscription, requisitioning of food, and allegations of misconduct by soldiers (Veuillet 2020, p.98). Following conflict between the SPLM/A and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in parts of greater Mundri in the early 1990s, significant fighting took place in the wider Mundri area in 1994, resulting in large-scale displacement. During the fighting, the SAF and allied militia from part of the Mundari community made gains in the area, as control of Mundri town oscillated between the SPLM/A and the SAF (HRW 1994, pp.100, 116; Action Africa in Need 1994, pp.4-5, 13).

The greater Mundri area experienced intermittent fighting and periodic bombing by the Sudanese air force over the following years (Africa Confidential 2005, HRW 1996; OLS 1996). The SPLM/A would consolidate gains in the wider Mundri area after 1997’s Operation Thunderbolt, though aerial bombing would continue until 2004, resulting in significant quantities of unexploded cluster munitions being present in the Mundri area (The World 2010). Additionally, Mundri was affected by the actions of a group of deserting SPLM/A soldiers in 2002 (discussed further in the profile for Torit County), with abductions, arson, and looting being reported as the soldiers passed through the area (Anonymous 2002, p.8).

Following the 1991 SPLM/A split, large numbers of displaced Dinka Bor pastoralists arrived in the grazing areas of greater Mundri (Okoth 2015, p.85). Although the wider Mundri area has hosted pastoralists from the Atuot/Atwot and Dinka Agar communities from Lakes State – as well as there being an initial willingness on the part of the host community to support the IDPs – disputes would mount between the host and IDP communities over the course of the 1990s and early 2000s. Disputes would emerge over various issues, including the size of the cattle herds that arrived in the area as the decade progressed and crop damage caused by cattle, alongside other tensions linked to land access and usage (PACT Sudan 2006, pp.159-160). This would result in limited violence by the late 1990s.

The deteriorating relations between parts of the Moru and Dinka Bor communities also contributed to tensions between parts of the Moru community and the SPLM/A, due to the alleged ownership of some cattle herds by SPLM/A commanders (Veuillet 2020, pp.101-4). Whereas previous methods of dispute resolution had resulted in largely peaceable relations between agriculturalist and pastoralist communities in the wider Mundri area, dispute resolution was increasingly overshadowed by perceived biases and power imbalances between the two communities (Veuillet 2020, p.109). In the early 2000s, parts of greater Mundri would experience further acts of violence involving parts of the Moru and Dinka Bor communities (IRIN 2004).

Tensions, community mobilisation, and conflict during the CPA era (2005 and 2011)

Tensions between host and displaced pastoralist communities from Jonglei State increased in several parts of Western Equatoria following the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), with a number of displaced pastoralists remaining in the greater Mundri area despite local resolutions and attempts by the SPLM/A to facilitate their return to Jonglei State (IRIN 2004; PACT Sudan 2006, p.160). Some of the attempts to relocate the pastoralists to Jonglei did not have the consent of the pastoralist community, and left them exposed to attack on the return journey (Murphy 2005). Within greater Mundri, serious violence was reported after September 2005, with over a hundred people reportedly killed over two months of conflict (Veuillet 2020, pp.89, 107-8; UNSC 2005, p.5).

At the outset of the 2005 violence, a community defence group emerged among parts of the Moro community in greater Mundri, and were active in conflict with parts of the Dinka Bor. This group was known locally as the Nyarango Boys, with nyarango referring to a white sorghum cultivated in the area (Craze 2023, p.7; Veuillet 2020, fn.9). These served a similar function to Arrow Boys groups elsewhere in the state, which are discussed further in other profiles in Western Equatoria. In addition to conflict involving parts of the Moru and Dinka Bor, in December 2005 violence was reported between parts of the Moru and Mbororo-Fulani communities (UNSC 2005, p.5).

Although the Mundari pastoralist and Moru agriculturalist communities had generally amicable relations prior to the second civil war, relations became strained between these communities during the CPA era, albeit to a lesser extent than relations between parts of the Dinka Bor and Moru. Before the second civil war, positive relations between the Moru and Mundari were upheld in part because of the close social connections between the communities, alongside regulation of cattle movements and disputes by largely effective institutions (Veuillet 2020, p.97). However, these conditions were not maintained across the war, creating conditions for tensions to periodically escalate after the CPA. This was partly due to the government’s alleged use of militias from part of the Mundari community in the Mundri area (Africa Action in Need 1994, p.2), but also due the effects of increasing polarisation along ethno-political and livelihood lines outlined above, as well as the erosion of effective and popularly supported dispute resolution mechanisms.

Occasional tensions have subsequently affected relations between parts of the Moru and Mundari ethnic groups: these include issues surrounding outbreaks of East Coast Fever in parts of greater Mundri in 2008 and 2011 (Okoth 2015, pp.88-89, 91), as well as disputes between parts of the Moru and Mundari communities over the Lake Reri area of Mundri East (USAID 2010, p.185). Periodic tensions have also occurred between some Dinka Bor and Mundari pastoralists over cattle raiding within Mundri East (Okoth 2015, p.94).

In addition to being involved in conflict with some pastoralists, the Nyarango Boys were also involved in protecting local communities amid Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In 2008, the settlements of Bangolo/ Bangulu and Tore Wandi in the far south of the county were affected by LRA attacks, resulting in displacement to Mundri town (Sudan Tribune 2008). Further Violence linked to the LRA was reported in parts of the wider Mundri area later in 2008 and also in 2009, generating displacement to Mundri town (BBC News 2009; HRW 2009; IRIN 2009).

Overlapping localised and national-level conflicts (2013-2018)

As with many other areas in Western Equatoria State, the greater Mundri area experienced few direct effects of violence during the early stages of the national conflict (2013-2018). However, the area soon became increasingly militarised, driven by localised tensions relating to an influx of displaced Dinka Bor pastoralists (Kuol 2017, p.25). Tensions morphed into localised conflict in late 2014, and fed into escalating opposition activity across 2015. As with other parts of Western Equatoria, local and irregular forces would gradually become absorbed into the SPLA-IO. In the case of greater Mundri, parts of what would become the local branch of the SPLA-IO had emerged out of the Nyarango Boys network in early 2014. These forces initially had a relatively loose affiliation with the SPLA-IO, and were located in the Gariya area of Mundri West County (Small Arms Survey 2016, pp.8-9).

In a process that has similarities to the early 1990s, increasing numbers of displaced pastoralists from Jonglei arrived in Mundri East and West counties after the national conflict began, reviving pre-existing tensions over land use and destruction of crops by cattle (Okoth 2015, pp.80, 89). Dinka Bor pastoralists had initially moved their cattle to Lakes State after fighting broke out in and around Bor town, though insecurity and pressures over grazing land within Lakes prompted some pastoralists to move with their cattle southwards to the Mundri area by February 2014. Within several months of the arrival of the pastoralists, tensions had escalated between the Moru and Dinka Bor communities in the greater Mundri area, while a resolution reached at a peace conference in Mundri town to relocate the cattle by mid-July was not implemented. Allegations were also made of affiliations between some pastoralists and parts of the military (Schomerus and Taban 2017, p.10).

Across the second half of 2014, violence between parts of the Moru and Dinka Bor communities escalated in Mundri West, before spreading to Mundri East. Localised tensions would intensify into episodes of violence and displacement, alongside attacks on assets critical to both the livelihood needs of agriculturalist and pastoralist communities. This included attacks on beehives and mango trees used by the Moru, as well as cattle owned by the Dinka Bor (de Vries 2015, pp.105-6; Radio Tamazuj 2014). These events resulted in increasing polarisation between parts of the affected communities, and also fuelled tensions between some local residents and authorities at both the local and national levels (de Vries 2015, pp.109-12). Separately, pastoralists from Lakes State were alleged to have raided Amadi Payam in mid-2014, resulting in loss of life and displacement (Okoth 2015, p.94).

Despite a further peace conference in January 2015 ordering cattle to vacate the Mundri area – and a presidential decree issued the following April stipulating that pastoralist were to leave the state – sporadic localised violence involving parts of the affected communities was also reported across 2015 (Braak 2016, pp.55, 70; Small Arms Survey 2016, p.9). Additionally, violence among groups of Dinka pastoralists were reported in Mundri West’s Bangolo Payam in March 2015 (Sudan Tribune 2015).

Meanwhile, opposition activity increased in greater Mundri across 2015 (UN Panel of Experts 2016, pp.23-24, 41). Although the lines were initially blurred between localised conflict linked to agriculturalist-pastoralist tensions and insurgency, as the year progressed local forces would become increasingly integrated into the wider SPLA-IO movement (ICG 2016, p.14). Fighting escalated in several areas in the region, with opposition-linked forces entering Mundri town in May 2015. This resulted in the death of a prominent local official, with subsequent conflict catalysing displacement from the town to other parts of Mundri West (IOM DTM 2016). Mundri town was the epicentre of further fighting in the second half of the year, generating further displacement (Small Arms Survey 2016, p.9; IOM DTM 2016).

As insurgency and counter-insurgency activity increased, the Small Arms Survey (2016, p.9) and International Crisis Group (2016, p.16) reported allegations of abuses against civilians and civilian property, alongside rising levels of displacement. In November 2015, a church-led peacebuilding effort to bring a stop to the violence in greater Mundri was signed by figures from the SPLA and local civil society, though violence re-escalated later the same month (PA-X, n.d.; Braak 2016, p.73). Mundri West was affected by further violence and (re)displacement during 2016 (IOM DTM 2016), with further reports of civilians deaths emerging (Sudan Tribune 2016). Fighting continued in the greater Mundri area for the remainder of the national conflict, with frequent clashes taking place until January 2018.

Mundri West after the R-ARCSS (2018-present)

While the signing of the R-ARCSS in September 2018 brought relative stability and the return of some IDPs to Mundri West, instances of conflict linked to the arrival of the National Salvation Front (NAS) opposition group as well as road ambushes by unknown groups have been reported in the county (Radio Tamazuj 2020a), albeit to a lesser extent than in neighbouring Mundri East County. This includes reported fighting in May 2020, when NAS claimed to have repulsed a joint SSPDF and SPLA-IO attack in Mundri West, and also to have ambushed a National Security patrol (Radio Tamazuj 2020b).

Tensions between parts of the agriculturalist and Dinka pastoralist communities have also escalated, with fighting in Bangolo Payam early April 2023 resulting in a number of deaths. Amid further reports of tensions, state authorities ordered pastoralists from Jonglei State to leave Western Equatoria in mid-2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023), with differing accounts of whether pastoralist communities complied with the order (Craze 2023, p.7; Eye Radio 2023).

ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS

Payams: Mundri (County Headquarters), Amadi, Bangolo/Bangulu, Kotobi

UN OCHA 2020 map for Mundri West County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-mundri-west-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

• A primary road running east from Mundri town to Juba was deemed passable by the Logistics Cluster in both the rainy and dry seasons of 2022 and 2023, respectively. The same road runs west to Wau via Yambio. In the rainy season of 2022, this road was deemed passable between Mundri and Maridi, and then ‘passable with difficulties’ west of Maridi up to Wau. In the dry season of 2023, the entirety of the road was considered passable between Juba and Tambura, and ‘passable with difficulties’ between Tambura and Wau.
• This primary road forks at Liyoba village, running north to Rumbek town via Mvolo County. This road was deemed passable during both the rainy and dry seasons of 2022 and 2023, respectively.
• A tertiary road runs south from Kotobi village to Makhogani village in the south of Mundri West County. The condition of the road is unknown.

 UNHAS-recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Mundri

REFERENCES

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Africa Confidential. (2005). From the ground up. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

Anonymous. (2002). Confidential Report on the Emergency Consultative Meeting for Equatoria – On the Impact Created by Particular Groups of Army Deserters in September, 2002. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive 14 March 2024.

BBC News. (2009). Living in fear after LRA atrocities. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

Braak, B. (2016). Exploring Primary Justice in South Sudan: Challenges, concerns, and elements that work. Leiden: Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University/Cordaid. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

Craze, J. (2023). Jemma’s War: Political Strife in Western Equatoria. Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 4 December 2023.

Eye Radio. (2023). Cattle herders seen leaving Mundri West County. Retrieved 17 March 2024.

FAO/WFP. (2023). South Sudan 2022 Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) Summary of findings. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

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

HRW, Human Rights Watch. (1994). Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

HRW, Human Rights Watch. (1996). Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

HRW, Human Rights Watch. (2009). The Christmas Massacres: LRA attacks on Civilians in Northern Congo. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

IRIN [The New Humanitarian]. (2004). Rising tensions between IDPs and host community in southern Sudan. Retrieved via Sudan Tribune website 16 March 2024.

IRIN [The New Humanitarian]. (2009). Civilians flee LRA “revenge” attacks. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

IRNA. (2020). Floods Fact Finding Mission Report Mundri West and Mundri East Counties, Western Equatoria, September 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Kuol, L.D.B. (2017). ‘Dinka youth in civil war: Between cattle, community and government’. Chapter 3 in ‘Informal Armies: Community defence groups in South Sudan’s civil war’, Saferworld. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Murphy, P. (2005). ‘Assisting the return of displaced Dinka Bor’, Forced Migration Review issue 24, pp.36-37. Retrieved 17 March 2024.

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

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Radio Tamazuj. (2014). Soldiers negotiating return of nomads in W. Equatoria to Lakes. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023a). Truck driver attacked on Mundri-Maridi road. Retrieved 17 March 2024.

Radio Tamazuj. (2020b). NAS accuses SSPDF, SPLA-IO of military offensives in Mundri West. 25 May 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2023). Cattle keepers ordered to leave Mundri in a week’s time. Retrieved 17 March 2024.

REACH. (2019). Mundri West Displacement and Service Access Brief. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

REACH. (2020). Integrated Needs Tracking (INT) County Profile – Mundri West County. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Schomerus, M. and Taban, C. (2017). ‘Arrow boys, armed groups and the SPLA: intensifying insecurity in the Western Equatorian states’. Chapter 2 in ‘Informal Armies: Community defence groups in South Sudan’s civil war’, Saferworld. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Small Arms Survey. (2016). Conflict in Western Equatoria: Describing events through 17 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2008). Ugandan rebels continue to terrorize Sudan’s W. Equatoria. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

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UNMISS. (2020). UNMISS Set to Mitigate Water Shortages in Mundri Caused by Returnees Attracted by Peace. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

USAID. (2010). ‘Conflict Over Resources Among Rural Communities in Southern Sudan: A Case Study of Lake Girindi, Mvolo County, Western Equatoria State (WES),’ in Land Tenure Issues in Southern Sudan: Key Findings and Recommendations for Southern Sudan Land Policy, pp.180-209. Note that that pages referred to use the location within the PDF document, the rather than the page numbering system used in the original document.

REPORTS on MUNDRI WEST

Boswell, A. (2017). Spreading Fallout: The Collapse of the ARCSS and New Conflict along the Equatorias-DRC border. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Boswell, A. (2019). Do local peace deals work? Evidence from South Sudan’s civil war. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

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Spencer, P. S., et. al. (2013). ‘Nodding syndrome in Mundri county, South Sudan: environmental, nutritional and infectious factors’, African Health Sciences, 13 (2), pp. 183-204. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Veuillet, E. (2020). ‘Grain against cattle: Resisting the new socio-political order: Reinterpreting farmer-herder conflicts in the region of Mundri, South Sudan’, Revue internationale des études du développement, 243 (3), pp. 89-113. French language text retrieved 16 March 2024.

de Vries, L. (2015). ‘‘The government belongs to other people.’ Old cycles of violence in a new political order in Mundri?’ in Schomerus, M. (ed.) Conflict and Cooperation in the Equatorias, pp.102-113. 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: The Moru Kodo should not be confused with the Moru, who have a distinct language and culture. The former have historically settled in Maridi, Mundri West and Mvolo, and their name is variously described as ‘Moru Kodo’, ‘Moro Kodo’, ‘Morokodo’ or ‘Kodo Kodo’.