The county is one of the eleven counties that constitute
Jonglei State. The county is prone to drought and the population is nomadic, sometimes migrating to other locations in search of water and pasture for their livestock. Due to the insecurity associated with military conflict between
Sudan and
South Sudan, some of the inhabitants of the county have sought refuge in neighboring
Ethiopia. Some of those refugees are expected to return following the independence of South Sudan in July 2011. In 2010, a nutrition survey of young children was carried out by Medair and Save the Children in Southern Sudan (SCiSS). The study found high rates of acute malnutrition and poor child health indicators. These poor indicators included: high percentage of diarrhoea cases among the population, low measles immunity and low levels of vitamin A among the population. The rates of
Global Acute Malnutrition were above the
World Health Organization (WHO) crisis level but death rates were below
WHO emergency levels. The researchers concluded that may be the feeding programme started in 2009 was enough to prevent some deaths, or that the more vulnerable died during the civil strife of 2009. ==Population==