Food aid needed for 1.6 million people

Food aid is urgently needed for over 1.6 million people in northern and eastern Uganda in the worst humanitarian crisis the country has seen for years, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. Those most in need were 820,000 displaced people in the north, 655,000 drought victims in Karamoja region, and 147,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. While food stocks were available for August, there would be a "pipeline crisis" by September, WFP spokeswoman Lara Melo told IRIN. Over one million people are currently displaced by the ongoing conflict with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north, not all of whom were accessible by humanitarian workers, said Melo. Currently WFP was unable to reach about 150,000 displaced people around Katakwi in eastern Uganda, she added. Meanwhile, the major roads outside Gulu, Kitgum and Pader in the north remained so insecure that food aid could not be delivered without a military escort, which in some cases was not available, Melo told IRIN. The fear of abductions by the LRA - 8,400 from June 2002 until June 2003 - killings and looting have also severely hampered people's ability to produce or even buy food. This was the second planting season to be severely disrupted by fighting, WFP said. Since June 2002, the conflict has spread beyond the traditional areas of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts further south to Lira, Apac, Soroti, Katakwi, Kumi and Kotido districts.