Yirol West

Yirol West County, Lakes State

Demographics

2008 NBS Census population: 103,190

2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 181,025

2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 174,804

2024 UN OCHA population estimate*: 181,026

2024 IPC population estimate: 180,048

2025 UN OCHA population estimate*: 181,325

Ethnic groups and languages: Atuot/Atwot (Apak; Reel: Akot, Jilek, Kuek/Jekueu, Luac, Rorkec)**

Displacement Figures as of September 2024: 9,856 IDPs (-5,594 Sept. 2023) and 13,510 returnees (-1,348 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

Yirol West County is located in Lakes State. It borders Rumbek East County to the north-west, Yirol East County to the north-east, Awerial County to the south-east, and Wulu County to the west. It also borders Central Equatoria State (Terekeka County) to the south and Western Equatoria State (Mvolo County) to the south-west.

The county falls under both the ironstone plateau agro-pastoral and Western flood plains sorghum and cattle livelihood zones. The Lou River (also known as the Payii River/Payii Dok among the Atuot/Atwot) runs through the county. Pastoralism is an important source of livelihoods throughout the county and an estimated 75% of households engaged in agricultural activities in 2018 (FAO/WFP 2018). This remains the case in figures from 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). Gross cereal yields for Yirol West County were at 1.35 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasing to 1.4 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2023). Changing weather patterns, such as long dry spells, have also limited crop yields in Yirol West (FAO 2019). Major crops cultivated include sorghum, simsim (sesame) and groundnuts, with some farmers also growing millet, cassava and vegetables. Maize is also cultivated on a limited scale. Compared to other parts of the country, ox-ploughs are used to increase crop yields.

Cattle are an important component of livelihoods among the resident Atuot, with young men playing a strong role in the protection and movement of cattle closer to and farther from the River Nile depending on the season. Cattle raids and disputes over grazing have been a significant source of conflict in recent years. Lake Yirol is also an important source of fish and water for the local community but has been affected by pollution in recent years (Mimbugbe 2021).

The food security situation in Yirol West County has declined in recent years. IPC projections put Yirol West County at crisis (IPC level 3) levels in November 2024, with food insecurity conditions projected to persist at the same level until March 2025, whereupon it deteriorates to emergency (IPC level 4) levels. As of November 2022, over 25% of households in the county meet between 25% and 50% of their calorific needs through humanitarian assistance, though projections for December 2022 to July 2023 indicate that fewer than 25% will require humanitarian assistance during this time period.

Infrastructure & Services

The county HQ is in Yirol Town in Yirol Payam. Though Yirol town is relatively well connected to Rumbek town to the west and the port of Shambe (in Yirol East County) to the north-east, adverse seasonal road conditions can leave the town isolated from other parts of the state. Yirol is regarded as a comparatively stable and ordered town, while conflict in its environs has been curbed following a series of peace meetings in 2010 and 2011 (Ryle and Amuom 2018). Barring a serious clash in April 2021 in Anuol Payam (Sudans Post 2021), insecurity has been relatively limited in the county in recent years.

Yirol West County is home to ten (10) Early Childhood Development centres, seventy-four (74) primary schools and eight (8) secondary schools. Three secondary schools are based in Yirol Town while Aluak-Luak Secondary is located in its eponymous payam. Education facilities and services have been impacted by teachers in the county leaving their jobs due to salary payments being significantly delayed (REACH 2019).

In December 2024, the WHO reported that Yirol West County had fifteen (15) health facilities, of which thirteen (13) were functional. These functional facilities included eight (8) primary health care units (PHCUs), three (3) primary health care centres (PHCCs), and two (2) hospitals. This means there were approximately 0.66 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 0.83 PHCCs per 50,000 people in the county at that time. Yirol County Hospital was reported to be moderately functional while Mapuordit Payam Hospital was reported to have limited functionality. Residents of Yirol West report having to travel long distances (up to one day or more) to reach their nearest healthcare facility.

According to OCHA’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs Overview, there are an estimated 107,111 people in need in Yirol West County, which represents approximately 59% of the county’s total population reported by OCHA for 2025. For comparison, in 2024, OCHA reported that there were an estimated 109,129 people in need in Yirol West County, of whom 94,399 were non-displaced people, with the remainder comprising IDPs and returnees. OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2023 estimated that over 105,700 people in Yirol West have humanitarian needs (up from 102,100 in 2021), which represented 60% of the projected population.

Conflict Dynamics

Greater Yirol was an SPLM/A stronghold during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) following its capture in 1985, with a significant number of SPLA soldiers being recruited from the area. In the wake of the 1991 SPLM/A split, Yirol town was seized by the Sudan Armed Forces in 1992, though SPLM/A forces retained a presence in nearby rural areas. Cattle raiding from some Nuer communities from southern Unity State into Greater Yirol increased in the mid-1990s, with the SPLM/A distributing arms to local gelweng (cattle guards) in response to the rising insecurity (Ryle and Amuom 2018, p.79). Yirol was recaptured (with gelweng support) during the SPLM/A’s Operation Thunderbolt of 1997, though endured subsequent bombing from the Sudanese Air Force (Rolandsen 2005, p.164; Saferworld 2015).

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, insecurity and cattle raiding increased in much of Lakes State, in the context of proliferating availability and ownership of small arms, the militarisation of community relations, and the erosion of effective justice mechanisms (PACT Sudan 2006, p.189). These conflicts extended to Greater Yirol, with raiding relationships forming between parts of the Atuot/Atwot and Dinka Agar communities of Rumbek East, and also between elements of the Atuot and the Ciec and Aliab Dinka clans of present-day Yirol East and Awerial counties, respectively (Nyaba 2001, p.6, 14). In 2002, and following an SPLM/A-led disarmament campaign in several areas of the state, customary authorities approached the New Sudan Council of Churches to convene peace and reconciliation meetings. With the assistance of international peacebuilders, civil society, members of the local judiciary and SPLM/A, a series of consultative meetings to address conflicts in and around Lakes State were held in Panakar near to Yirol town (PACT Sudan 2006, pp.189-192; Ryle and Amuom 2018, pp.34-36). This paved the way for the formation of the Panakar Peace Council in early 2004, establishing a peacebuilding institution for peace committees and representatives in the region to meet and begin the process of addressing the underlying and proximate causes of conflict. This created an infrastructure that would be used for regular peace conferences to address conflicts in parts Lakes State and several adjoining areas over the following years. This included a series of emergency meetings in 2004 to address conflict in the Greater Yirol area, and tensions between some pastoralists from Lakes State and agriculturalists from the ‘Jur Beli’/Bel community of Mvolo County, which is discussed further below (PACT 2004).

By 2004, Yirol County had been sub-divided into Awerial, Yirol East and Yirol West counties, though cross-border conflict relating to claims over grazing land near to the River Nile escalated the same year, once again pitting parts of pastoralist community from the Aliab and Ciec Dinka clans against those from the Atuot. Despite the close association of the area with the SPLM/A – and a number of political and military elites from Greater Yirol occupying prominent positions within the movement – relations between the community and the SPLM/A have at times been turbulent, with this turbulence feeding into the conflict between parts of the Atuot and Dinka after 2004. Discontent with the governing SPLM/A increased during forcible recruitment into the movement in 2001, alongside disputes relating to perceived bias towards the Atuot in the provision of government resources after 2004. Moreover, repeated disarmament campaigns in Greater Yirol between 2000 and 2011 generated tensions with the gelweng (who were a focal point for an unsuccessful attempt at forcible disarmament in 2004), whilst firearms were reported to be redistributed back into the area by authorities after the campaigns (Ryle and Amuom 2018, pp.33-34, 59). Multi-year peace negotiations eventually brought the violence to an end in 2011. However, insecurity within Greater Yirol continued, albeit at a smaller scale. The insecurity received only limited coverage, possibly due to conflicts becoming less deadly after youth groups shifted to using hand weapons following the 2011 disarmament campaign (Easthom 2015).

Conflict between the SPLA and SPLA-IO between 2013-2018 affected the Greater Yirol area. However, these effects were generally indirect, manifesting in the form of cross-border conflict and a remilitarisation of the gelweng. The first half of the national conflict occurred amid an atmosphere of mistrust between the Lakes State government and youth in Yirol West, especially following the death of an influential youth leader in 2014 (Sudan Tribune 2014). In 2014 and 2015, raiding from Unity State’s Panyijiar County into northern areas of Lakes State increased, with Nuer cattle guards (‘gojam’) reportedly working alongside SPLA-IO forces to resist government offensives. Although one report notes the gelweng from Greater Yirol participated in the 2015 government offensive against Panyijiar County (Luedke 2020, pp.14-15), local information indicates that as a result of disarmament campaigns the Greater Yirol community would have lacked sufficient arms to participate, though did request the deployment of SPLA forces to the border area to prevent encroachment from opposition forces. The supply of firearms to the Greater Yirol area also increased during the national conflict, notably after 2016 (Ryle and Amuom 2018, 57-58), though guns were procured by individuals rather than being distributed by the government. Meanwhile, in May 2017 Paul Malong arrived in Yirol (whilst en route to Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State) after having been removed from his position as chief of staff of the SPLA. Malong returned to Juba after officials in Yirol prevented his convoy from travelling through the town, amid intensive mediation efforts to avert a security crisis. Over the following year, Malong’s political support networks were dismantled, with a number of Greater Yirol elites being removed from their positions (Africa Confidential 2018; Boswell 2019, p.13).

In June 2017, fighting between parts of the Luac section of the Atuot and the Akeer section of the Aliab Dinka was reported in the grazing land of Ciirkou, which runs along the Nile from Shambe in Yirol East to Mingkaman in Awerial County to the south-west. The fighting raised fears of a return to a situation on intractable conflict between the Atuot and Dinka, as had occurred between 2004-2011. However, a combination of immediate intervention and peacemaking efforts on the part of customary and government officials (alongside youth groups) and unwillingness among most sections of the Atuot to escalate the conflict helped contain the violence. Additionally, the desire for security in the face of a common threat may have provided an impetus for Greater Yirol’s pastoralists to maintain amicable relations after cattle raiders from Panyijiar escalated raiding into Greater Yirol in 2017 and 2018 (Ryle and Amuom 2018, pp.77-81). Whilst internal conflict among the Atuot is relatively limited, in 2021 parts of the Nyaying (a sub-section of the Kuek/Jekueu section) and the Jeluth (who are part of the Jekyieng sub-section of the Kuek/Jekueu) clashed following an elopement, killing 20 people (Sudans Post 2021).

Although conflict among pastoralists from the three counties of the Greater Yirol area has declined, cross-border conflict has occurred between elements of the Atuot of Yirol West and neighbouring communities from both Rumbek East and Mvolo counties. In addition, Atuot pastoralists have experienced cattle raids from Panyijiar County whilst grazing cattle in Yirol East County, as is discussed further in the Yirol East profile. Raiding between parts of the Atuot and Dinka Agar communities from Rumbek East is a well-established practice, though as with raiding in other parts of South Sudan cattle raiding and retaliatory violence has become increasingly lethal amid across multiple national conflicts and increased gun ownership. Raiding was reported in the second half of the recent national conflict, including a serious incident in July 2015 that killed at least 27 people (Sudan Tribune 2015). Following cross-border raiding in 2019 and 2020 (Radio Tamazuj 2019; IOM 2020), clashes involving parts of the Dinka Agar and the Atuot communities increased markedly in 2021, clustering in Aluakluak and Gher payams to the west of the county.

Raiding and violent clashes have declined between the two groups in 2022 and 2023, in line with a general decline in violent raiding in Lakes State. This has been attributed in part to the approach favoured by the Lakes State government, which has allegedly relied upon the employment of extra-judicial killings and detention to restore order. This has raised questions about the sustainability of the approach given its focus on suppressing violence rather than addressing the underlying causes of raiding and vigilantism, and whether this approach will endure in the event of a change of leadership in the state (Pospisil 2023).

Pastoralists from Yirol West have also been enmeshed in long-standing disputes relating to grazing land and the alleged destruction of crops in parts of Western Equatoria State’s Mvolo County to the south-west. However, trade and inter-marriage between the communities – alongside relatively regulated forms of conflict – have placed limits on the severity of violence. Despite these inter-relationships, the spread of firearms and a general militarisation of social relations has undermined traditional attempts at mitigating or resolving conflict (Lambo 2020). Violence along the border with Mvolo County and Lakes State increased by the latter stages of the second Sudanese civil war (South Sudan Council of Churches 2002), and continued into the Comprehensive Peace Agreement era (2005-2011). In early 2011, conflict rapidly escalated between some Atuot pastoralists and some members of the ‘Jur Beli’/Bel community of northern Mvolo following an unsolved murder. The conflict spread across the common border area between February and April, killing dozens and displacing 76,000 people, whilst 6,000 homes were torched amid looting and raiding (AFP 2011; Nonviolent Peaceforce 2011). A peace dialogue facilitated by the Nonviolent Peaceforce resulted in a peace agreement being signed in June 2011. The agreement limited violence but did not prevent it altogether, though succeeded in restoring non-violent means of resolving disputes. However, conflict in Mvolo involving some pastoralists from Yirol West escalated markedly in 2020 (Eye Radio 2020), as is discussed further in the Mvolo County profile.

Administration & Logistics 

Payams: Yirol (County Headquarters), Abang, Aluakluak, Anuol, Geng-geng, Gher, Mapuorit

UN OCHA 2020 map of Yirol West County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-yirol-west-county-reference-map-march-2020

Roads:

  • A primary road runs west to Rumbek town from Yirol town (via Aluakluak and Akot), and to Juba via Terekeka (Central Equatoria State). The Logistics Cluster deemed the road between Yirol and Rumbek and between Yirol and Terakeka “passable with difficulties” during the wet season of 2024 and the dry season of 2025. (The road was deemed passable from Terakeka to Juba during the wet season of 2024 and the dry season of 2025.)
  • A tertiary road branches off this primary road at Piercok village, running east to Yirol East County. Seasonal conditions of the road were unknown.
  • A primary road runs from Yirol town through Yirol East County up to the port at Shambe. The road was deemed to be “passable with difficulties” in both the rainy season of 2024 and dry season of 2025.
  • A secondary road runs south from Aluakluak to Mvolo town (Western Equatoria State). The road was designated “passable with difficulties” during both the rainy season of 2022 and dry season of 2023.
  • A secondary and tertiary road run south of the primary road to Juba in the south-east of Yirol East County, meeting at Wunabiei. The road runs on to Tali in Terekeka County (Central Equatoria State) and then on to Mundri West County (Western Equatoria State). The conditions of this road are unknown.

UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Yirol

References

AFP. (2011). ‘Thousands flee deadly tribal clashes in South Sudan’. Retrieved from UNMIS Media Monitoring Report 7th April 2011 on 7 November 2023.

Africa Confidential. (2018). Salva’s Bunker Mentality. Retrieved 6 November 2023.

Boswell, A. (2019). Insecure Power and Violence: The Rise and Fall of Paul Malong and the Mathiang Anyoor. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Easthom, T. (2015). ‘The South Sudan Weapons Free Zone’, Peace Review, 27 (1), pp.31-36. Retrieved 3 November 2023.

Eye Radio. (2020). Mvolo cattle raid death toll rises to 10. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

IOM. (2020). South Sudan Event Tracking—Yirol East and Yirol West, Feb 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Lambo, Y. (2020). In South Sudan, the Hope and Pain of Nonviolence. USIP. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Luedke, A. (2020). Violence, Crime and Gender in South Sudan: Reflections from the Field on Militias and Gangs. LSE Conflict Research Programme. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Mimbugbe, D.M. (2021). Clean Water and Sanitation Still a Problem in Yirol Lake State. Retrieved 9 November 2023.

Nonviolent Peaceforce. (2011). South Sudan-Mvolo County and Yirol West County Reconcilation Process. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Nyaba, P.A. (2021). The Disarmament of the Gel-Weng of Bahr El Ghazal and the Consolidation of the Dinka Nuer Peace Agreement. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

PACT. (2004). The Panakar Peace Council’s Rapid response in the Lakes and Mvolo Sub-region – May – July 2004 Consolidated Report. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive on 6 February 2023.

PACT Sudan. (2006). Sudan Peace Fund (SPF): Final Report October 2022 – December 2005. USAID.

Pospisil, J. (2023). Changing Lakes State? Rin Tueny’s Inclusive Deterrence Approach in Practice. Retrieved 6 November 2023.

Radio Tamazuj. (2019). 10 killed in cattle rustling in Eastern Lakes. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

Rolandsen, Ø. (2005). Guerrilla Government: Political Changes in the Southern Sudan during the 1990s. Mordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Ryle, J. and Amuom, M. (2018). Peace is the Name of Our Cattle-Camp. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Saferworld. (2015). South Sudan’s gelweng: filling a security gap, or perpetuating conflict?. Retrieved 3 November 2023.

South Sudan Council of Churches. (2002). ‘Pankar Consultative Meetings: A Series of Two

Meetings to Address the Rising Trend of Inter Communal Conflict in the Lakes Area of Bahr

El Ghazal Region and Mvolo County’, proceedings, 16–20 September and 30–31 October. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive on 15 July 2023.

Sudans Post. (2021). Violence over eloped girl kills 20 people in Lakes state. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2014). Lakes: Yirol West youth blame government for leader’s death. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

Sudan Tribune. (2015). 27 killed, dozens wounded in Lakes state raid. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

Reports on Yirol West

Burton, J.W. (1981). ‘Atuot Ethnicity: An Aspect of Nilotic Ethnology’, Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 496-507. Retrieved 2 November 2023.

IOM. (2013). Village Assessment Survey: County Atlas. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

REACH. (2014). Conflict Analysis: Lakes, Northern Bahr El Gazhal and Warrap States. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Ryle, J. and Amuom, M. (2018). Peace is the Name of Our Cattle-Camp. Rift Valley Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Saferworld. (2023). Conflict, gender-based violence and mental health in Lakes State: Perspectives from South Sudan. Retrieved 18 July 2023.

Wilunda, C., et al. (2017). Changing the role of traditional birth attendants in Yirol County, South Sudan. PLoS ONE 12(11). 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.

** Note: The accurate description of communities in Yirol West and Yirol East is complicated by their linguistic diversity. The Atuot/Atwot generally regard themselves as a separate group to the neighbouring Dinka tribes in Lakes State. However, the Atuot/Atwot are divided into two main sections: the Reel and Apak/Apaak. While the Reel have their own language (thok-reel) and are further sub-divided into the Luac, Jilek, Akot, Rorkec and Kuek (a.k.a. Jekueu) sub-sections, the Apak are the larger Atuot section and speak a variety of southern Dinka (thok-apaak). The Kuek/Jekueu are bilingual, speaking thok-reel and thok-apaak. though more closely identify with other Dinka groups than other Reel sections. The Kuek/Jekueu also sub-divide into a further eight sub-sections (Ajong-Karam, Balang Jeyau, Jekyieng, Jeklieb, Guarang, Nyijieng, Neng, Nyuei). The cultural and linguistic affinities between parts of the Atuot and neighbouring Dinka communities has led some Dinka and other outsiders to regard the Atuot/Atwot as a section of Dinka. Other historians and customary tales trace the origin of the Reel Atuot/Atwot to Nuer communities.