Imatong Mountains

The Imatong Mountains (also Immatong, rare Matong ) lies in the southwest of South Sudan in the state of Eastern Equatoria and extends up to Uganda. The highest point of the mountain and at the same time the entire South Sudan is situated in the center Kinyeti with a height of 3187 meters.

History

Until 1922, registered on the official map of the Anglo -Egyptian Sudan only the outline of the mountain range. 1929 reached the botanist Thomas Ford Chipp, then vice director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the summit of Kinyeti and published in the same year a report on the plant world, which also contained some photographs. The first detailed map was published in 1931. Later, it was by the British on the north side, (1800m ) set up an observation post overlooking the village of Gilo at about 2200 meters height. The biologist Neal A. Weber was concerned with taxonomy and examined 1942/43, the ants in the field.

Geography

The Imatong massif is located about 130 kilometers southeast of Juba and south of the main connecting road over to the Kenyan border town of Torit Lokichoggio. Along the border between Sudan and Uganda are three mountain areas: the east of the Imatong the 2623 meter high Dongotono Mountains and further east the Didinga mountains with 2795 meters altitude. The highlands of Imatong is 2500-2700 meters high, several peaks reach 3000 meters. The northwestern mountain range is referred to in the narrower sense as Imatong and performs the two summits of Garia and Konoro Mountain, which lie above the villages Gilo and Katire ( 1000 meters), together. In the west the Acholi mountain range stretches, lie at the foothills and up to the border town of Nimule some villages. By Shilok River, tributary of the Koss, separated from Imatong massif to the southeast, the isolated standing mountain Modole is (also called Langia ). In the south and across the Ugandan border in the district of Kitgum rise in the small towns and Agoro Lututuru the Agoro Mountains. Some of the peaks around the Kinyeti are also called Lolibai.

Imatong and Acholi mountains are separated by the Kinyeti valley of the same river drains northwest into the White Nile. To the west of this valley of Talanga Forest, one of the three remaining lowland rain forests located within this area. The other two forest areas are located in a river valley south of the Acholi mountains. To the north towards the mountains from Torit fall steeply to around 600 meters, which is located in southern subsequent level to 1000 meters.

In the plane and up to 1000 meters altitude umbrella acacia species ( Acacia abyssinica particularly, A. albia, A. seyal ) is predominant, also grow tamarind trees, Myrobalan and in the forest areas Khaya. At altitudes from 1000 to 2900 m, the vegetation consists mainly of mountain forests of Podocarpus and Croton and Macaranga ( to euphorbias ]. In still higher regions grow Kosobaum thickets and Erika.

Population

In the villages and settlements the individual scoring the Nilotic Lotuko, Acholi and Langi live in the southern part. They operate subsistence and partially livestock. Since the end of the civil war in 2005 foreign aid workers are also a long time in South Sudan and first Christian missionaries see a work area in the remote mountain areas. The number of Christianized Lotuko is in the single digits.

The area is one of the refuges of the rebel Lord 's Resistance Army, fighting in northern Uganda against the government, are responsible for attacks in southern Sudan and find protection in the mountains.