AFRICA.Uganda: Severe floods, landslides and drought in Uganda have killed over 200 people this month in the northeastern part of the country. As per reports, these people died of hunger.
In addition, nursing mothers, children and elderly persons are the most affected populations in the country.
“As the government, we acknowledge the famine situation in Karamoja where we have reports of deaths due to starvation,” a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told the media.
Karamoja region bordering Kenya has suffered more stringent attacks in recent days, especially cattle rustling by armed men. This, however, has further rendered the region volatile, pushing scores of residents into acute starvation. Apart from the humanitarian crises ravaging the region, developmental strides are also threatened.
“People like the elderly, lactating mothers and children, they are dying silently in their homes. They just succumb to hunger,” said Jino Bornd Meri, head of local government for Kaabong district, in the Karamoja region.
Meri further noted that the district had recorded at least 184 deaths from hunger in July alone. In another account, Moses Okori, the leader of the local charity Integrated Community Agriculture and Nutrition (ICAN), said no fewer than 22 people had lost their lives to acute hunger in Kotido, another volatile district in the Karamoja region.
Statistically, this is below the findings of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in June where unrest in Karamoja is snowballing into food insecurity.
The WFP last month said at least 518,000 people, or 40% of Karamoja’s population, were facing high levels of food insecurity. But Faith Nakut, a local legislator in the country estimated that “At least 600 people have died of hunger in the region since June.”
There was no official record of the lingering incident in Karamoja. Julius Mucunguzi, the spokesperson from Prime Minister’s office admitted that there are reports of hunger-related deaths in the region. But he could not give an exact figure of the casualties.
According to Mucunguzi, the Ugandan government dispatched trucks of food to the region last week.
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