President acknowledges rising poverty in the north

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Friday that Uganda’s economy had been “one of the most vibrant in Africa for almost a decade,” but acknowledged that the north of the country had not benefited from Uganda’s good macro-economic performance. The poverty level in northern Uganda was not only still high, but had risen in the last three years, Radio Uganda quoted him as saying. Museveni put this down to rebel activities and banditry which had “left dysfunctional family units and an eroding infrastructure,” Museveni added. The rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), currently led by Joseph Kony, has been fighting a guerrilla-style war against the Ugandan government in northern Uganda since the late 1980s. The fear of rebel attacks has forced an estimated 480,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) to remain in protected camps in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda, with restricted access to health services, poor sanitation and insufficient food. In an address to mark the official opening of parliament on Friday, Museveni said the government was planning to improve Uganda’s infrastructure, strengthen the financial sector and increase the competitiveness of the private sector. At the current rate of progress, mass poverty in the country could be eliminated by 2017, he added.