Local authorities point to a slow response to the crisis, according to the ‘Daily Monitor’
July 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Around 900 people have died since February in the Ugandan region of Karamoja (northeast) from diseases related to hunger due to poor harvests and drought, according to local leaders quoted by the local newspaper ‘Daily Monitor’.
These sources have indicated that the figures compiled by local authorities and intelligence services point to the death of more than 900 people, mainly children and the elderly, amid the slow response to the crisis.
The situation has generated a new factor of instability such as the increase in inter-community clashes to try to steal heads of cattle, which has led the Army to arrest more than 400 suspects since mid-May.
“It is difficult to explain our situation to outsiders until they visit our settlements,” said Lotisan sub-county chief John Robert Adupa, adding that 22 people have died in the area so far from famine-related illnesses.
Thus, he lamented that “there is almost nothing to harvest.” “Crops have disappeared, people need government food that has yet to arrive. Some have resorted to boiling hides and skins from goats and cows to eat,” she explained.
For his part, the president of the Kotido district, Lote Paul Koder, stressed that 626 people, mainly the elderly and children between the ages of three and six, have died in the last five months, before the central authorities “rescue the people of Kotido giving adequate food supplies to all households.
Along these lines, Kotido’s production officer, Robert Kennedy Okuda, has highlighted that half of the nearly 165,000 residents in the district do not have enough to eat, before adding that 77 percent of them need urgent help.
Added to these figures is the death of some 260 people in the Kaabong district, according to the local chief, Jino Meri, who specified that the figure corresponds to the period between January and July. “The situation is bad,” he acknowledged, before comparing the situation to the famine that hit the area between 1979 and 1980.
Likewise, the president of Napal, Paulo Koder, has confirmed the death of 49 people in the district, in which only 640 of the 163,000 residents have so far received food aid. “I don’t want to be a leader who complains, but one who offers solutions,” he stressed, although he has pointed out that insecurity has taken resources away from communities dependent on livestock.
The heat wave that shakes the area has also dried up torrents of water that emerged from Mount Moroto, which allowed agricultural activities in the area, which has caused that about eight out of ten households are in a situation of food insecurity, according to official statistics.
In this context, Lazarus Kyuha, director of a secondary school in the area, has indicated that the center, which had more than 400 students, will have to close due to lack of food. “There is a shortage of food to feed the students,” he has argued.
The Karamoja region is one of the poorest in the African country, with an eminently rural population dependent on livestock and agriculture. This area of the country has the highest levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in Uganda.
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