Uganda food aids funds low

2005-10-12 13:05

Geneva - The United Nations food agency said on Wednesday it is running out of money to feed 1.5 million hunger-stricken people in northern Uganda.

The World Food Programnme said it needs $58m to buy food in 2006 for almost the entire population of the region, where most people live in camps after two decades of conflict involving the notoriously cruel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"We have food available up until the end of the year," said WFP's Daly Belgasmi, who recently returned from a weeklong visit to the country. "We don't have commitments to feed people next year."

Northern Uganda has been devastated by the LRA's 19-year insurgency, during which time the group has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than a million to flee their homes.

The rebels also are infamous for kidnapping thousands of children and forcing them to become soldiers or sex slaves.

- AP