1.6m Ugandans need food

2003-07-28 14:41

Kampala - More than 1.6 million people in Uganda, half of them displaced by a vicious 17-year rebellion in the north, are in desperate need of food, the UN food agency said on Monday in its appeal for $54m to feed them.

Fighting between the Ugandan army and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, as well as raids by the insurgents on town and villages, has forced 820 817 people to flee their homes in northern and northeastern Uganda, Edward Kallon, program manager for the World Food Programme in the East African nation, said.

The LRA rebels have also abducted 8 400 children in the past year, he said. Aid groups estimate that the rebels have made off with 20 000 children since the rebellion began, turning the boys into fighters and the girls into concubines.

Every night, thousands of children in northern Uganda flock to the region's main towns where they huddle together on the streets to avoid being snatched by the rebels who roam the countryside largely unopposed after dark.

The UN food agency also needs money to feed 535 366 Ugandan herders affected by a severe drought in the northeastern Karamoja district and for another 150 000 refugees who have fled a 20-year civil war in neighbouring Sudan, Kallon said.

The $54m would be used to buy 100 000 tons of food to last from August to March next year, he said.

In January, the agency launched an emergency appeal for $58m but received only $34m from donors, Kallon said.

"The pledges were very minimal, and we have been forced to reduce cereal (grain) rations and cut off substantial supplies to both the refugees and the internally displaced people," Kallon told reporters in Kampala. "The 17-year war in northern Uganda has worsened the humanitarian situation, and recently the rebels have made incursions into northeastern districts, displacing more people."

Led by Joseph Kony, who claims to have spiritual powers, the LRA is a remnant of a northern rebellion that began after President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, took power in 1986 after a five-year bush war.

- SAPA