Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura and Agencies
31 October 2002
Kampala — The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that unless donors came forward with urgent contributions, the victims of fighting in northern Uganda will soon face severe food shortages and unprecedented hunger.
Now WFP is seeking 18,000 tonnes of food for more than half a million people, including many displaced persons or refugees fleeing the prevailing insecurity.
The sharp increase in fighting between the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) since May has caused daily raids on displacement camps and refugee settlements especially in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts.
President Yoweri Museveni has since pitched camp in the north, vowing to end the war that has killed many.
The attacks usually involve a brutal mix of abductions, executions and the widespread destruction of property, leaving thousands of people homeless and destroying belongings and crops across the region. Many villagers have been told to vacate their homes and move into protected camps as the UPDF embarked on air raids on the rebels.
"People in northern Uganda are already suffering horribly as a result of the fighting, and the destruction of their crops is having a terrible effect on their nutritional condition," said Ken Davies, WFP's Country Director for Uganda. "All the stocks from the previous harvest have been exhausted, and no additional food production is expected during the following year," he said.
WFP, which is the only humanitarian agency with access to camps and settlements beyond the two main towns (Gulu and Kitgum) in the region, does not have the necessary resources to continue providing all the urgently needed assistance.
The agency says it has already been forced to reduce food rations being distributed in Gulu by 30 percent.
It warns that if the funding situation does not improve, further cuts are envisaged in other areas next month, resulting in complete lack of food security for the vulnerable people of the affected region.
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