Imatong Mountains
The Imatong Mountains (also Immatong , more rarely Matong ) are located in the southeast of South Sudan in the state of Eastern Equatoria and extend to Uganda . The highest point of the mountains and at the same time of the whole of South Sudan is the Kinyeti in the center with a height of 3187 meters.
history
Until 1922, only the outline of the mountain range was marked on the official map of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . In 1929 the botanist Thomas Ford Chipp, then Vice Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, reached the summit of the Kinyeti and published a report on the plant world that same year, which also contained some photographs. The first detailed map was published in 1931. Later the British set up an observation post on the north side, above the village of Gilo (1800 meters) at an altitude of about 2200 meters. The biologist Neal A. Weber was busy with taxonomy and examined the ants in the area in 1942/43.
geography
The Imatong massif is located around 130 kilometers southeast of Juba and south of the important connecting road via Torit to the Kenyan border town of Lokichoggio . There are three mountain areas along the border between Sudan and Uganda: in the east of Imatong the 2623 meter high Dongotono Mountains and further east the Didinga Mountains with 2795 meters. The Imatong highlands are 2500-2700 meters high, with several peaks reaching 3000 meters. The north-western mountain range is called Imatong in a narrower sense and brings together the two peaks of the Garia and Konoro mountains, which are above the villages of Gilo and Katire (1000 meters). The Acholi mountain range stretches to the west , with a few villages at the foothills and up to the border town of Nimule . Separated from the Imatong massif in the southeast by the Shilok River, tributary of the Koss, is the isolated mountain Modole (also called Langia ). In the south and across the Ugandan border in Kitgum district to rise in the small towns Lututuru and Agoro the Agoro- mountains. Some peaks around the Kinyeti are also called Lolibai .
The Imatong and Acholi Mountains are separated by the Kinyeti Valley, the river of the same name drains northwest into the White Nile . To the west of this valley is the Talanga forest, one of the three remaining lowland rainforests within this area. The other two forest areas are in a river valley south of the Acholi Mountains. To the north in the direction of Torit, the mountains drop steeply down to around 600 meters, while the plain in the south lies at 1000 meters.
Umbrella acacia species (especially Acacia abyssinica, A. albia, A. seyal ) are predominant in the plains and up to 1000 meters above sea level. Tamarind trees , myrobalans and Khaya also grow in the forest areas . At altitudes from 1000 to 2900 m, the flora consists mainly of mountain forests of stone slices as well as croton and macaranga (to euphorbias ). In still higher regions grow hagenia -Dickichte and Erika .
population
In the villages and individual settlements to live Nilotes counting lotuko people , Acholi and in the southern part Langi . They practice subsistence farming and some of them raise livestock. Since the end of the civil war in 2005, foreign development workers have been in South Sudan for a long time and the first Christian missionaries see a work area in the remote mountain areas. The number of Christianized Lotuko is in the single-digit percentage range.
The area is one of the retreats for the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army , who fight against the government in northern Uganda, are responsible for attacks in South Sudan and find shelter in the mountains.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian Taylor: The Ants of Africa. Chapter 2: Geography and History. Northeast Africa - Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia & Somalia. ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nilotic People Group Tree. Major Peoples with High Percentages of Christians. Orville Jenkins, 2002
- ^ LRA Conflict in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan, 2002. Human Rights Watch, 2002
literature
- Ib Friis, Kaj Vollesen and Kongelige Danske: Flora of the Sudan-Uganda Border Area East of the Nile. Catalog of vascular plants. Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 1998 ISBN 8773042978
Web links
- Gurtong Peace Project: Eastern Equatoria Links to JPG or PDF: Detailed map of Eastern Equatoria from the Southern Sudan State Map Series. Eastern Equatoria State. 1: 500,000
Coordinates: 4 ° 6 ' N , 32 ° 51' E