British aid for humanitarian projects in the north

Britain has contributed US $11.8 million to fund emergency health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS projects in strife-torn northern Uganda, United Nations agencies said on Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) announced in a joint statement that the funds would be used to speed up humanitarian efforts in war-affected districts. "Funds would help accelerate the implementation of humanitarian response activities to assist 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in more than 200 camps in Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Lira and Apac districts," the statement said. Activities to be funded by Great Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) will be implemented in collaboration with the Ugandan health ministry, the Ugandan AIDS Commission and UNAIDS. The projects include the prevention and management of malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia; routine immunisation, de-worming and provision of vitamin A to young children; control and prevention of HIV/AIDS; and expansion of reproductive health services. "The contribution provides an opportunity for a well-coordinated health intervention that will contribute to improved and better health outcomes," said Melville George, WHO representative in Uganda. DFID said the money was part of some $26.5 million in direct budgetary support that Britain had frozen recently because of concerns over Uganda’s democratisation process. The rest of the aid, DFID added, would most likely be given to the UN World Food Programme to fund its operations in the country. For two decades, northern Uganda has been ravaged by a brutal insurgency that pits government forces against rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. The conflict has led to the displacement of close to 90 percent of the region's inhabitants, who now live in camps.