Unicef calls for Uganda aid
2004-05-25 20:15
Nairobi - Unicef chief Carol Bellamy on Tuesday urged the world to focus on the "humanitarian emergency" in northern Uganda, which has been devastated by 18 years of conflict.
"The world needs to wake up to the enormity of the crisis in northern Uganda. This is one of the most serious humanitarian emergencies in the world," Bellamy said in a statement after arriving in Kampala for a four-day visit.
The number of displaced people in the region has tripled to 1.6 million over the last 24 months as a result of the war, which pits government forces against the notoriously brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, according to a statement from the UN agency for children.
"Homeless and struggling to survive, many are subjected to sexual violence and other forms of exploitation," the statement said.
"Many hundreds of thousands of children are living in conditions of fear and violence. They are being denied their basic human rights to health, protection and education. We need to renew our efforts to alleviate their suffering," Bellamy explained.
The Unicef chief, who is due to visit displaced people's camps in the northern districts of Gulu and Lira on Wednesday, urged Kampala to protect the children.
While in the north, Bellamy will also meet some of the 44 000 children known as "night commuters" who every evening pour into the region's towns because their villages are considered too dangerous after dark.
"The government of Uganda has the responsibility to protect these children and the rest of the world must play its part.
"So far the global response has been inadequate. Governments to date have pledged just 20% of this year's UN appeal for $127m in humanitarian aid to the region," she added.
Bellamy also urged the rebels, who have abducted around 12 000 children since June 2002, to release the remaining child soldiers and other abductees.
The LRA has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988, ostensibly to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
But the shadowy movement is best known for its cruelty and child abductions. Young boys are forced to fight in the rebel group's ranks while girls are made sex slaves to rebel commanders.