Boma (administrative division)
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A boma is a lowest-level administrative division, below payams, in South Sudan. Equivalent fifth-level divisions elsewhere are described as village, block or ward.[1]
Bomas vary in size and typically contain many individual villages.[2] In Bomas, authority is usually divided between the Boma administrators who are appointed by the government and the traditional chief appointed by a council of elders.[3] As of 2009, South Sudan's 514 payams had an average of 4.2 bomas each.[4]
Etymology
The term Boma originated from the town of Boma in Jonglei State, the first place captured by the Sudan People's Liberation Army at the start of its 1983 insurgency.[1]