Ikotos County

Ikotos County is in the south of Eastern Equatoria state, adjoining the Ugandan border to the south, Magwi county to the west, Torit county to the north, and Budi county to the east. The county contains the Imatong Mountains in their entirety, which includes the highest peak in Sudan, Mount Hinati at . The mountains rise steeply from the surrounding plains, which are at an elevation of on the South Sudan-Uganda border, sloping down gradually to the north. These plains are crossed by many streams, separated by low, rounded ridges, and dotted with small gneiss hills, outliers of the main mountain range. The mountains are sharply faulted and are the source of many year-round rivers. Average annual rainfall in the mountains is about The plains and the lower parts of the mountains are covered by deciduous woodland, wooded grassland and bamboo thickets to the north and west. The areas to the east and southeast are in the rain shadow of the mountains, with dry arid grassland or deciduous or semi-evergreen bush. ==People==

In 2002 the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, the humanitarian wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, estimated that the population was 67,340, including internally displaced persons. The county's area is home to the Ketebo, Dongotono, Imotong, Logir, Otuho, Lango: Lokwa & Lorwama. The Lango tribe has two sub-tribes – the Lango, Lorwama. The Lango keep cattle and cultivate millet, melons, sweet potatoes, beans, bananas, tobacco. The Ketebo live in Bira which include Lotome, Nakoringole, Lofus, Ateda/ Madiel, Lorum, Napeyase, Longairo, Osisi, Toomodo, Okosio, Ofi, Lobila Tome, Kamulach, Kalabe, Narus Bokolore, Lorife, Lonyili, Irobi, Lojilingare, etc. while the Dongotona live in dense settlements, cultivate sorghum, groundnuts, simsim, telebun, and sweet potatoes, and keep large herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Cattle play a central role in social life, used in contracting marriages and performing rituals, and exchanged as gifts. The tribes have always indulged in cattle raiding, particularly during the dry season when the grass is short and cattle can be moved faster. There have always been conflicts between the tribes, notably in the Kidepo valley, using the traditional weapons of spears and sticks. In the past, the number of lives lost was limited, and peace would soon be made through formal ceremonies. The people of the region live by subsistence agriculture, mostly growing sorghum and millet, and livestock raising. 90% of the agricultural work is undertaken by women using hand tools. Crops are generally rain-fed, with no irrigation, making them vulnerable to reduced rainfall or drought in either of the two growing seasons. Fishing, natural resource exploitation, mining and trade are practiced in a small way. The people live in extreme poverty with no rights of land tenure, and chronic insecurity. There is no infrastructure and no legal framework to make investment practical. ==Colonial era==

Little is known of the Lango country before the arrival of Europeans. The explorer Samuel Baker was the first European to visit the region, travelling in the northwest and west of the area in 1863. He visiting Tarrangolle (Tirangore) and observed unnamed mountains to the south. Later he passed through these mountains, the western Acholi range of the Imatongs. Baker formally annexed the region around the upper Nile for the Khedive of Egypt in 1871. Following the defeat of Muhammad Ahmad in 1898, the region came under the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1899. In 1914 it was transferred to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The first rough topographical map was published in 1917 by H. Pellew-Wright, a District Commissioner of Uganda who crossed the Imatong mountains from northeast to southwest, but the official map of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1922 only showed the outlines of the Imatong mountains in the heart of present-day Ikwoto county. In 1929 the botanist Thomas Ford Chipp, then deputy director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, reached the peak of Kinyeti. The same year he published a report on the flora with several photographs. The first detailed map appeared in 1931. The region remained isolated and underdeveloped. Sudan became independent in 1956, but a year earlier civil disturbances had broken out in the southern regions that did not want to come under control of the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. ==Civil war years==

Ikwoto was relatively untouched by the fighting in the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). Control of Ikwoto changed hands several times. In November 1993 Nyuon was again attacking SPLA troops around Ikwoto. The influx of SPLA fighters and government troops led to a sharp rise in the number of guns available, and to their use in cattle raids and murders. Ambushes, rapes and killings by tribesmen armed with Kalashnikovs or even rocket launchers became common through the 1990s and into the 2000s. Over 400 people were massacred by the LRA in the Imotong area in the west of Ikwoto county in March 2002. Faced with this threat, the people refused to hand over their guns, which they needed for self-defense. After the LRA clashed with the Uganda People's Defence Force in October 2002, Uganda closed the road being used by aid workers to carry supplies from Kitgum to Ikwoto. In May 2003 the Imatong and Ikwoto districts, then in Torit County, reported 178 suspected cases of Yellow Fever and 27 deaths. On a positive note, during this period Norwegian Church Aid made a significant contribution with the Ikwoto County Education Centre, which trained 120 teachers in 2004 and 2005. ==Post war==

An uneasy peace between the SPLA and government of Sudan was established in January 2005. The region suffered from an outbreak of Cholera in the first half of 2006. The village of Ikotos reported 3,359 cholera infections and 103 deaths out of its population of 8,000. Aid workers were at risk of being ambushed and killed by the LRA. The LRA finally withdrew from the county in April 2007. The prolonged violence has disrupted families, destroyed trust and has often created a passion for vengeance. Economic growth has been minimal, even compared to neighboring counties such as Budi, and many people have failed to obtain a formal education. In September 2009 the Food and Agriculture Organization published a mid-season crop and food security assessment for Southern Sudan. It reported that a prolonged dry spell from late April until July and erratic rainfall had caused the first season harvest to fail completely in parts of Ikotos and other parts of Eastern Equatoria, and farmers had lost hope in the second season crop. The most affected areas included Lomohindang South, Losite, and parts of Imatong and Lomohindang North in Ikotos. In September 2010 Ikotos County Commissioner Peter Lokenge Lotone stated that there had recently been a decrease in violence, attributing the improvement to cooperation between county authorities and the youth, women, elders and chiefs in catching thieves. In January 2011 leaders of the Lango communities gathered in Torit for a three-day reconciliation meeting that had been organized by the Lango of Juba, aiming to restore unity following disputes in the past year's elections. The leaders also passed a resolution to eliminate cattle rustling, in part by launching vocational training institutions for youths of the county. In the January 2011 referendum on independence in Ikotos county five votes were cast for unity with northern Sudan while 57,041 were cast for secession as a separate state of South Sudan. ==References==