02/05/2025
The Hidden Cost of Conflict in Morobo County: Forests Falling, Borders Bleeding
Payume and Kendila, Morobo County — A Crisis of Silence and Exploitation
In the remote and conflict-weary regions of Payume and Kendila in Morobo County, South Sudan, the scars of war are not only seen in destroyed homes and displaced families they are also written across the vanishing forests and blackened earth. The ongoing conflict has led to widespread environmental exploitation, turning forests into fields of stumps and hills into charcoal stockpiles.
Recent images from these areas paint a grim picture: massive stacks of timber, freshly cut and ready for transport, and hundreds of charcoal bags piled high under tarpaulins, awaiting shipment. These are not just signs of commerce they are the consequences of a desperate and unregulated war economy.
Amid the suffering, Uganda has quietly become one of the major beneficiaries. With Morobo’s borders porous and poorly monitored, traders from Uganda cross over with ease, loading trucks with timber and charcoal to meet rising demand back home. According to estimates from South Sudanese forestry officials, a single truckload of timber exported illegally to Uganda can fetch up to $5,000 to $8,000 USD. Similarly, a large sack of charcoal, sold for $3–$5 locally, is resold in Ugandan urban markets at up to $15–$20 USD per sack a profit margin that fuels the trade.
The scale of deforestation is equally alarming. Satellite imagery and local environmental monitors suggest that South Sudan loses an estimated 2% of its forest cover annually, and areas like Morobo are among the worst hit. In Payume and Kendila alone, community leaders estimate that over 500 mature trees are felled monthly to feed the illegal timber and charcoal trade.
Despite these grim realities, neither the Government of South Sudan nor that of Uganda has taken public or political action to condemn or curb this environmental plunder. No bilateral environmental protection framework exists, and no policy enforcement is visible on the ground. This silence this lack of accountability allows the exploitation to continue unchecked.
For the people of Payume and Kendila, the consequences are long-term and devastating. With their forests gone, their soil degraded, and their access to traditional resources destroyed, future generations are being robbed not just of trees, but of opportunity, security, and dignity.
The war in South Sudan is doing more than displacing people it is displacing the land itself. If peace is to mean anything, it must come with restoration: of governance, of accountability, and of the forests that once sheltered and sustained these communities.
