During the rainy season, between June and October, the Baro River alone contributes about 10% of the Nile's water at Aswan, Egypt.

Rather than defining a line based on ethnic groups and traditional territories, essentially along the escarpment that separates the Ethiopian Highlands and the plains of the Sudanian Savanna, they simply proposed a line drawn down the middle of the Akobo River and parts of the Pibor and Baro rivers.

This boundary was consummated in the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1902, resulting in an area in Ethiopian Gambela Region called the Baro Salient.

This area is more closely connected to South Sudan than Ethiopia, both in terms of natural features and people.

The Baro Salient was used as a sanctuary by Sudanese insurgents during the country's long civil wars.