UGANDA: Food crisis, starvation in the northeast

KAMPALA, 22 May 2008 (IRIN) - "We witnessed people starving," Aston Kajara, the government minister in charge of Karamoja development, told reporters in Kampala after visiting the region last week. "People are eating rats, others are eating leaves."

Disaster preparedness minister Musa Ecweru said some hunger-related deaths had been reported. Other people were living on one meal a day. "Between 80 and 90 percent of the one million people in Karamoja are in acute food shortage and depend on relief supplies," he said on 20 May.

A joint survey by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the health ministry in February found acute malnutrition rates above the emergency threshold in two districts - 15.6 percent in Moroto and 15.1 percent in Nakapiripirit.

"WFP cannot confirm or refute reports that people are dying, but there is a humanitarian emergency," country director Tesema Negash said. "A combination of factors, including long dry spells, droughts, population explosion, severe environmental degradation and chronic insecurity has led to perpetual vulnerability in Karamoja."

In 2006, the region suffered a severe drought. In 2007, it experienced a dry spell followed by floods and massive water-logging in the most fertile areas. Then, a honey dew fungal infection destroyed the staple sorghum crop while other diseases killed thousands of cattle, goats and sheep, and food prices rose.

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