Yambio County, Western Equatoria State
DEMOGRAPHY
2008 NBS Census population: 152,257
2021 NBS PES population estimate*: 138,976
2022 UN OCHA population estimate*: 168,858
Ethnic groups: Azande (plural)/Zande (singular)
Displacement Figures Q3 2022: 8,998 IDPs (+5,638 Q1 2020) and 52,937 returnees (+26,963 Q1 2020)
IPC Food Security: November 2022 – Stressed (Phase 2); IPC Projections: December 2022 to March 2023 – Stressed (Phase 2); April to July 2023 – Crisis (Phase 3)
ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS
Yambio County is located in Western Equatoria State. It borders Nzara County to the west and Ibba County to the east. It also borders Lakes State (Wulu County) to the north and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the south.
The county falls within the equatorial maize and cassava livelihoods zone (FEWSNET 2018). Similar to much of the Equatoria region, residents of Yambio County are primarily agrarians – in 2018, it was estimated that 60% of households engaged in agriculture (FAO/WFP 2018). This estimate had increased to 80% by 2021 (FAO/WFP 2022). Cattle-rearing is not common although small-scale animal husbandry (including goats, pigs, ducks) is widely practiced. Cyclical prolonged dry spells affect the area regularly, delaying the growing season and negatively impacting food production (FEWSNET 2018). Gross cereal yields were estimated to be 1.35 tonnes per hectare in 2021, increasing to 1.4 tonnes per hectare in 2022 (FAO/WFP 2022; FAO/WFP 2023).
In addition to agriculture, Yambio and the broader area of Western Equatoria is known for its rich natural resources, particularly teak. Although significant profits are channelled towards armed groups and companies affiliated with groups in Juba, some have allowed local institutions to be supported, even when adequate financial resources were not received from the national level. Much of the teak in the area is exported to other countries through Uganda. The value of the teak trade is unknown. While logging and various other casual jobs along the informal forest-product supply-chain are viable livelihood opportunities, the trade is defined by widespread environmental degradation and exploitation of labour (ADB 2013).
Yambio is an important market hub for the western part of the country. However, all major trade routes connecting Yambio to Juba have closed periodically during periods of increased insecurity since 2015. Traders have found alternate routes moving goods from Uganda through DRC and crossing into South Sudan nearer to Yambio Town. However, these detours over more difficult terrain have severely limited the availability of basic commodities including food stocks within the market, and resulted in an increase in the price of foods and negative coping strategies (REACH 2019b).
In November 2022, Yambio County was classified as experiencing Stressed (IPC Phase 2) levels of food insecurity, making it the second least food insecure county in Western Equatoria State after Nzara County. However, food security levels are predicted to decline to Stressed (IPC Phase 2) level conditions from December 2022 until March 2023, and are projected as deteriorating to Crisis-level conditions from April 2023 to July 2023.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES
The county’s headquarters are located in Yambio Town Payam, which also serves as the capital of Western Equatoria State. While Yambio County was not the site of large-scale fighting following the initial outbreak of conflict in 2013, changes in conflict dynamics in the area from 2015 onwards resulted in displacement to urban areas where key infrastructure and services are located, putting additional pressure on access to such facilities (REACH 2019a).
Yambio County is home to a variety of educational institutions. Yambio boasts thirty-one (31) Early Childhood Development centres, ninety-nine (99) primary schools and fifteen (15) secondary schools (all but one of which are located in Yambio Town Payam). The town also hosts the Comboni Teacher Training College, one of only a handful in South Sudan, which attracts students from far-reaching areas of the country including the Nuba Mountains and continued to operate throughout the conflict.
Yambio County was reported to have fifty-nine (59) health facilities including forty-nine (49) functional health facilities, among them forty (40) PHCUs, eight (8) PHCCs and one (1) hospital in 2022. This means that there were an estimated 3.15 PHCUs per 15,000 people and 1,26 PHCCs per 50,000 people according to the WHO, which ranks Yambio as among the ten counties with the highest ratios of PHCUs/person in South Sudan. Yambio State Hospital was reported to be moderately functional.
According to OCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2022, there are 132,765 people in the county with humanitarian needs (up significantly from 81,500 in 2021), which accounts for approximately 78% of the estimated population of Yambio County reported in the HNO. In 2020, Yambio was listed by the HNO as one of fourteen counties in “extreme” need of sexual and gender-based violence services. Yambio is home to refugees from across the region with some 8,175 people living in Makpandu Refugee Camp, located 40 kilometres north-east of Yambio town (UNHCR/WFP 2023). Refugees are predominantly from the DRC and Central African Republic (CAR), with some refugees from Sudan and Eritrea also living in the camp. Demonstrations were reported in the camp in late 2022, after reports emerged that aid to the refugees would be given in the form of food rather than cash.
CONFLICT DYNAMICS
In addition to being the state capital of present-day Western Equatoria State, Yambio has historical significance as the centre of power for the Azande Kingdom at the start of the 20th century (Braak 2016, p.14). The area was relatively insulated from the direct effects of fighting in the second Sudanese civil war, though following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 and the transition to independence, Yambio became a site of brewing tensions and gradual militarisation. These would later feed into conflict dynamics during the national conflict that began in 2013, with Yambio experiencing particularly complex patterns of violence and insecurity after the arrival of the national conflict in the area in mid-2015, as is discussed further below.
Yambio during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005)
During the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), the SPLM/A were able to seize Yambio town in early 1990 during the Bright Star campaigns, and successfully fended off a government counterattack (Madut-Arop 2006, p.220). The movement would retain control of the town for the remainder of the conflict, including during the setbacks of the early 1990s, where the SPLM/A were forced out of the larger settlements they occupied by government forces and their allies. The uninterrupted presence of the SPLM/A enabled local administrative structures to gradually develop around Yambio (Rolandsen 2005, p.134).
However, relations between the local Azande community and the SPLM/A have at times been strained, and have been exacerbated by reported tensions between parts of the local community and Dinka pastoralists who were displaced to parts of Western Equatoria during the war (Allen 2007; Nyaba 1997, p.53). This included tensions relating to damage caused to crops by cattle (Lajour Consultancy 2002, p.97). Additionally, tensions were linked to the resettling of wounded Dinka soldiers in Yambio, as well as disputes between local traditional authorities and the SPLM/A, including over the allocation of land (ICG 2017, p.12).
Yambio was one of several areas affected by the actions of a group of deserting SPLM/A soldiers in 2002 (discussed further in the profile for Torit County). In Yambio, the deserters engaged in acts of theft in the town, which resulted in increased tensions between parts of the Dinka and Azande communities (Anonymous 2002, p.8).
Insecurity and mobilisation during the CPA era (2005-2011)
Yambio was affected by tensions and insecurity after the signing of the 2005 CPA, building on existing tensions between parts of the Azande, Dinka, and SPLM/A groups. In November 2005, fighting between parts of the Azande and Dinka communities (including elements of the SPLA) erupted in Yambio before spreading to nearby areas (IRIN 2005; UNMIS 2005; Sudan Tribune 2005a). The precise circumstances of the fighting are unclear, though followed in the wake of escalating tensions and conflict involving elements of the local agriculturalist and Dinka pastoralist communities in the Maridi and Mundri areas of the state. The violence in Yambio generated cross-border displacement into the DRC, and re-escalated in December 2005 before senior officials intervened to reconcile the affected communities (Sudan Tribune 2005b).
Prior to independence, Yambio and other parts of Western Equatoria state experienced attacks from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Within Yambio, areas close to the Congolese border – in particular in and around Gangura – were seriously affected by LRA activity. Although some reports indicated the LRA arrived in the Yambio area as early as 2006 (New Vision 2006; IRIN 2007), sustained LRA activity in Yambio County largely occurred between 2009 and 2011 (IRIN 2011; Small Arms Survey 2011; Small Arms Survey 2015).
The insecurity presented by the threat of the LRA led to the growth of a protection forces known as ‘Arrow Boys’ (which include female members) in Western Equatoria, which were established in western areas of the state during 2008. These forces would also be involved in periodic clashes with armed pastoralists from parts of the Dinka and Mbororo-Fulani communities in several parts of the state during the CPA era. Additionally, Yambio was used by the Ugandan military and United States military advisers during regional counter-LRA operations (Braak 2016, p.50). Insecurity linked to the LRA resulted in significant displacement from villages in the county, including to Yambio town. Following independence, disputes have emerged between a church in Yambio and IDPs sheltering on church land (CSRF and Deng 2021, p.21; Braak 2016, p.51).
Fragmentation and insecurity during the national conflict (2013-2018)
Like most of the Equatoria region, Yambio initially avoided large-scale fighting during the outset of the national conflict (2013-2018). However, localised tensions would interact with grievances linked to national-level politics, with the two sources of discontent combining to fuel conflict after it reached the Yambio area in mid-2015. Once conflict arrived in Yambio, an array of small opposition factions would emerge in the area, some of which originated in the Arrow Boys networks in Yambio. Highly fluid conflict dynamics took hold in Yambio County during the second half of the national conflict, characterised by frequent defections, the absorption of smaller factions into larger ones, and occasional surrenders of smaller groups or components of larger ones (UNMISS 2017). Yambio also hosted significant numbers of IDPs during the national conflict, including from the Maridi and Mundri areas (Braak 2016, p.71).
As in other parts of Western Equatoria, the route through which the national conflict spread to Yambio was not linear. Conflict emerged on the one hand from long-standing tensions between parts of the Azande and Dinka communities at the local level, and brewing subnational and national tensions on the other, with local militarisation creating conditions for tensions to rapidly escalate. In spring 2014, a leader within the Arrow Boys established a base in Nyaka to the east of Yambio near the Congolese border, to mobilise Arrow Boys from around the state (Small Arms Survey 2016, p.6). In mid-2015, localised conflict was reported in the village of Birisi in south-western Yambio. The initial conflict escalated into retaliatory violence between a group of Arrow Boys and SPLA soldiers, which was refracted through tensions between the Azande and Dinka communities, and spread to involve attacks on civilians in the local area (HRW 2016; The Guardian 2015; ICG 2016, fn.70).
The violence in and around Birisi brought together local, subnational, and national tensions, enabling conflict to swiftly escalate across other parts of Yambio County. By late July, fighting intensified between local Arrow Boy units and the SPLA, and continued into August in Yambio town, forcing thousands to flee (Braak 2016, p.71; Small Arms Survey 2016, p.10). At this stage, the Arrow Boys involved in the fighting were not unified, nor were they necessarily formally aligned with opposition groups. When clashes erupted the Arrow Boy leadership fled Yambio town, and began merging with parts of the Arrow Boy network from nearby parts of the state (notably in Ezo County), before establishing a new base at Ri-Rangu/Li-Rangu to the north of Yambio town (Boswell 2017, p.10).
Amid rising political tensions increased in the state that accompanied the signing of 2015 ARCSS signed (ICG 2016, p.15), further significant rounds of fighting between groups of Arrow Boys and the SPLA in Yambio were reported between September and December 2015. During this time, linkages between some Arrow Boy factions and certain opposition groups, including the SPLA-IO, began to deepen (ICG 2016, p.32). The SPLA pushed northwards into rural areas around Ri-Rangu in early January 2016 in a bid to seize Arrow Boy bases (Schomerus and Taban 2017, p.11; Braak 2016, p.73). Further fighting between SPLA-IO aligned Arrow Boys and the government took place at Ri-Rangu in June 2016, which displaced large numbers of civilians (Small Arms Survey 2016, p.15). The escalating conflict and increasingly disruptive tactics – including blocking traffic on the road to Ezo with logs – deepened the humanitarian crisis in the area, and frustrated local community members who claimed they were deliberately targeted by armed groups including the Arrow Boys (SAS 2016).
In addition to Arrow Boys who were aligned with the SPLA-IO, a number of smaller opposition groups emerged in the Yambio area during 2015. These were typically described in media reports as being linked to local Arrow Boys groups, though a number of groups were reportedly linked to criminal interests in the area rather than community protection forces (Schomerus and Taban 2017, p.12; ICG 2016, p.33). Together with the SPLA-IO, these groups contributed to political and military fragmentation in the Yambio area, with the complexity of the conflict in Yambio surpassing most other areas of the state. Three smaller opposition groups – REMNASA, SSNLM and SSPPF – were particularly notable in the period 2015-17 although in most cases later reconciled with either the SPLA or SPLA-IO as part of cantonment processes.
Sporadic clashes continued between various opposition groups and government forces for the remainder of the national conflict, with an uptick in fighting between the SPLA-IO and government taking place in mid-2018 (UNSC 2018, p.5). Additionally, Yambio experienced a substantial number of targeted killings of both civilians and security personnel by unknown groups after 2016. Although these attacks tended to target individuals, there were several instances of larger groups of civilians being targeted, often in unclear circumstances (Eye Radio 2017; Sudan Tribune 2017).
Yambio after the R-ARCSS (2018-present)
After the signing of the R-ARCSS in 2018, clashes between armed groups and security forces markedly declined, though reports of ongoing recruitment – including alleged forcible recruitment – emerged in 2019 (McCrone 2020, p.8). Moreover, occasional targeted killings continued to be reported in parts of the county, albeit at a lower level than during the second half of the national conflict.
Amid rising tensions in Western Equatoria in 2021 (discussed further in the profile for Tambura County), there was a marked increase in targeted attacks against political and security officials in Yambio town, as well as confrontations involving groups of SSPDF and SPLA-IO personnel (Eye Radio 2021a; Eye Radio 2021b). The national government’s decision to endorse the re-establishment of the position of Azande king and subsequent coronation of the paramount chief of Yambio county in February 2022 was seen by many as a deliberate move to reassert authority of the central government over Western Equatoria. However, the revival of the kingdom and associated political developments have added a layer of complexity to governance within the state and relations with Juba (Small Arms Survey 2023). Further insecurity was reported in the town in late 2022 (Sudans Post 2022), while tensions in the area were raised after a local businessman – who was also a local chief – was killed in Gangura Payam in August 2023 (Radio Tamazuj 2023).
Finally, local officials have alleged that parts of the Mbororo-Fulani community have been involved in recent incidents in Yambio County that resulted in several deaths and injuries (Radio Tamazuj 2022; Eye Radio 2023). During 2023, a number of incidents allegedly involving members of the Mbororo-Fulani pastoralist community were reported in Bangasu and Gangura payams, including an attack on a cattle camp reportedly linked to the Mbororo-Fulani that was repulsed by the pastoralists. However, details surrounding the circumstances of the incidents tend to be unclear, and the identity of the groups involved is often unconfirmed.
ADMINISTRATION & LOGISTICS
Payams: Yambio Town (County Headquarters), Bangasu, Gangura, Ri-Rangu, Nadiangere
UN OCHA 2020 map for Yambio County: https://reliefweb.int/map/south-sudan/south-sudan-yambio-county-reference-map-march-2020
Roads from Yambio town:
- A primary road runs westward through Nzara to Wau (Western Bar el Ghazal State) via Tambura, and eastward to Juba (Central Equatoria State). During the rainy season of 2022, the section of the road running north to Wau was designated ‘passable with difficulties’, whereas the eastern parts of the road were also deemed ‘passable with difficulties’ until Maridi, and thereafter passable all the way to Juba. The same road was considered passable during the dry season of 2023, excepting the stretch of road running north between Tambura and Wau, which was designated ‘passable with difficulties’.
- A tertiary road also runs south to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (via Nzara County), and a tertiary road runs north from Yambio towards Cueibet town (Lakes state). Seasonal conditions of these roads are unknown.
UNHAS-Recognized Heli-Landing Sites and Airstrips: Yambio
REFERENCES
African Development Bank (ADB) (2018). South Sudan: A Study on Competitiveness and Cross-Border Trade with Neighboring Countries. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Allen, T. (2007). ‘Witchcraft, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS among the Azande of Sudan’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 1 (3), pp.359-396. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
Amnesty International. (2016). South Sudan: Former Governor Detained Without Charge: Joesph Bangasi Bakosoro. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
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.
Boswell, A. (2017). Spreading Fallout: The Collapse of the ARCSS and New Conflict along the Equatorias-DRC border. Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Eye Radio. (2017). Yambio: Senior doctor murdered in a targeted attack. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Eye Radio. (2021a). Two soldiers accuse W.E. Governor’s bodyguards of attempting to kill them. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Eye Radio. (2021b). Gunmen attack Yambio commissioner’s home. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Eye Radio. (2023). 3 killed, infant wounded in Ambororo attack in WES. Retrieved 23 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. (2016). South Sudan: Army Abuses Spread West. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
ICG, International Crisis Group. (2017). Double-edged Sword: Vigilantes in African Counter-insurgencies. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
IRIN. [The New Humanitarian]. (2005). Clashes erupt between communities in Western Equatoria. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
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IRIN. [The New Humanitarian]. (2011). Taking on the LRA. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Lajour Consultancy. (2002). Report of the Research on Proliferation and Trafficking in Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in Yambio, Maridi, Kajo-Keji and Yei River Counties, Equatoria, South Sudan. Retrieved via Sudan Open Archive 23 March 2024.
Madut-Arop, A. (2006). Sudan’s Painful Road to Peace: A Full Story of the Founding and Development of SPLM/SPLA. Booksurge Publishing.
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Radio Tamazuj. (2022). 2 killed in Yambio. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Radio Tamazuj. (2023). W. Equatoria traders’ body demands hanging of soldiers accused of killing businessman. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
Rolandsen, Ø. (2005). Guerrilla Government: Political Changes in the Southern Sudan during the 1990s. Mordiska Afrikainstitutet.
REACH. (2019a). South Sudan Crossborder Population Movement Dynamics Brief. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
REACH. (2019b). Yambio County Food Security and Livelihoods Brief. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Schomerus, M. (2015). ‘Protection and militarisation in Western Equatoria’ in Schomerus, M. (ed.) Conflict and Cooperation in the Equatorias, pp.114-149. AECOM/USAID.
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.
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Sudan Tribune. (2005b). Security restored in S. Sudan Lakes state after ethnic clashes. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
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REPORTS on YAMBIO
Aninyesi, T. M. W. (2019). The role of radio communication in combating violence against women: A case study of Anisa FM radio in Yambio County, Gbudue State-South Sudan. (Doctoral dissertation, Makerere University).
Bedford, J. (2019). Key Considerations: Bushmeat in the Border Areas of South Sudan and DRC. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Braak, B. J. (2016). Exploring Primary Justice in South Sudan: Challenges, concerns, and elements that work. Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University/ Cordaid. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
Braak, B.J. (2022). Overcoming ruptures: Zande identity, governance, and tradition during cycles of war and displacement in South Sudan and Uganda (2014-2019). Doctoral thesis, Leiden University. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
CSRF and Deng, D. (2021). Land, Conflict and Displacement in South Sudan: A Conflict-Sensitive Approach to Land Governance. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
ICG, International Crisis Group. (2016). South Sudan’s South: Conflict in the Equatorias. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
McCrone, F. (2020). Hollow Promises: The Risks of Military Integration in Western Equatoria. Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Small Arms Survey. (2016). Conflict in Western Equatoria: Describing events through 17 July 2016. Retrieved 15 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.