Food for northern areas in short supply

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Uganda is short of US $23.8 million needed to assist 2.4 million food-insecure people in Uganda over the next seven months, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north, refugees and other vulnerable groups, WFP officials said. The required amount could, however, increase if an assessment done recently in the northeastern Karamoja region confirms preliminary reports indicating sharp food inadequacies in that area. Ken Davies, WFP Uganda country director, told IRIN that a preliminary report from the region indicated that some sub-counties had suffered severe food shortages and required assistance. "If there are no rains in these areas, then we expect trouble for the people in about five sub-counties," he said. The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), in a report released this week, warned that continuing insecurity had severely limited livelihood options for IDPs in Uganda, widening the food gap. "Given the food security situation both for those confined to camps and those returning, it is important that this deficit be closed. An extended dry spell in the drought-prone Karamoja region disrupted pasture growth and cultivation of major staples and could result in deterioration in the food security of the population in this area," FEWS Net noted. It observed that in spite of an overall reduction in the activities of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, sporadic attacks on communities and IDP camps had continued. As a result, as many as 94 percent of the estimated one million residents of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts had remained confined in camps. This had limited their access to their livelihoods, land and markets, rendering them unable to adequately meet their food and non-food needs. FEWS Net said improved security in northeastern districts of Kaberamaido, Katakwi and Soroti had "augured well" for the people in the region, who had begun returning to their homes. Davies said that WFP had finished distributing two-month food rations to all IDPs in Katakwi and Soroti districts while Kaberamaido district would be handled this month. He added, "over the last six weeks we have distributed 2,721 mt of cereals, corn-soya blend, vegetable oil and beans to benefit 130,773 people in Katakwi district and 35,189 in Soroti district." "The people are moving back to their villages, or to camps nearer to their homes. The rations are meant to provide food until their first harvest season and to encourage more people to return to their villages to resume normal lives," Davies said WFP also plans to provide resettlement rations to IDPs in Kaberamaido district, in collaboration with Uganda Red Cross Society, in September. A verification exercise was underway to establish the number of former IDPs in the district. WFP estimates that more than 97,000 people will receive a total of 1,700 mt of food to take back with them to their villages. Uganda's Disaster Preparedness Minister, Moses Ali, on Tuesday called for the restoration of services that will build people's confidence to return to their homes. "For people to leave their IDP camps, there must be safer conditions for their return for which the government is responsible. But if people are to feel confident about moving from camps back to their villages, there must be something to return to," Ali told a workshop of relief agencies on protection. In a related development, the Swedish government on Wednesday announced a donation of nearly $4 million towards WFP's relief and recovery operations in northern Uganda. Swedish ambassador Erik Aberg and Davies signed the agreement in Kampala at a ceremony attended by Christine Aporu, the Ugandan Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness. For over 18 years, war has raged in northern Uganda, displacing more than 1.6 million people who currently live in camps scattered across the region, while thousands of children have been abducted.