Donors respond to northern emergency

[Subscribers - please note this version replaces the original story, posted Friday 28 February, which is wrong and has been withdrawn] Donors have responded positively with funds in response to northern Uganda's humanitarian crisis resulting from renewed attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, a senior government official has said. Martin Owuor, the assistant commissioner for emergency response and preparedness in the office of the prime minister, told IRIN on Friday that donors had contributed up to 90 percent of the funds needed to provide northern Uganda's vulnerable population with food until the end of June. "The response we have received from donors is very positive," Owuor said. "But there will be a gap. What we have got will cover the period up to April. In early June we expect another big consignment from the USA," he noted. The Ugandan government, UN agencies and other humanitarian groups in January appealed for funds to address the emergency needs of about 190,000 refugees and 660,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said the total value of confirmed contributions for food assistance to Uganda so far this year was US $27.7 million. A further US $2.9 million has been contributed from WFP multilateral funds, the agency added.