ugnet_: THE UGANDA ANARCHY CONTINUES

[Mulindwa Edward]

By Nabusayi L. Wamboka 800,000 people threatened in the 'worst humanitarian crisis in the history of northern Uganda' A hungry man is an angry man? Maybe not; he could be just a dead man. And soon the country will wake up to find over 800,000 of its people starved to death in what the World Food Programme describes as the worst humanitarian crisis in the history of northern Uganda. In northern Uganda now, they are not merely under the threat of the ruthless Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, but if they are alive, chow could be the hardest thing to come by. Benson Opiyo, a 16-year-old boy, was abducted by the LRA two years ago together with his four brothers and their father while they where out searching for food "I was severely beaten. One of my brothers tried to escape but they caught him and killed him. They also killed my father. You cannot be afraid in the bush. I saw a girl in the bush who was afraid. The [rebel] soldiers brought a dead body and told her to smear the blood from the body all over her own body to prevent her from being afraid of dead things," Opiyo said. The desperate search for food by the displaced people in northern Uganda results into 20 abductions daily, according to Fred Olaa, the WFP Programme Officer in the region. He said it is extremely dangerous for people to venture outside the camps in search of food. The displaced populations from the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader have been driven from their villages and are now living in 60 densely populated improvised camps, where the living conditions are very poor. Even here, they continue to be terrorised by LRA rebels and are regularly victims of brutal attacks. WFP estimates that 70 percent of the local population in the three districts has been displaced as a result of the prevailing insecurity. "This is the worst humanitarian crisis since the fighting began in northern Uganda more than fifteen years ago. We had expected things to improve in 2002, but instead the numbers have continued to increase and the displaced people have lost both the last two harvests due to insecurity," said Ken Noah Davies, the WFP Country Director. According to Davies, the agency requires 108,000 tons of food commodities valued at US$ 59 million to feed over 800,000 IDPs and 150,000 refugees from January to June 2003. Currently, the country office is facing a pipeline shortfall of 87,329 tons of food commodities from January to July. "People are living like animals. They don't have a life - they simply exist. They do not have the bare minimum even to buy clothes. The situation is very bad. If we stop providing people with food, they will die," Charles Uma, chairman of the Gulu District Disaster Management Committee said. This may be beyond the means of WFP as it is facing serious funding problems. In October last year, WFP was forced to reduce the food rations to 70 percent of the daily food requirements of IDPs. As of January this year, the agency was forced to completely suspend distribution of cereals to IDPs in northern Uganda and to reduce cereal rations for refugees by 50 percent due to the serious cereal pipeline shortfall. "Uganda has the potential for local procurement of cereals and pulses at competitive prices if cash resources are pledged by donors. Donors are urgently requested to pledge resources to meet the urgent resource requirements and to prevent hunger and serious malnutrition among IDPs and refugees," Davies said. WFP is the only humanitarian agency supplying food in Northern Uganda. Last year it was forced to suspend food distribution to IDPs from June 19 to July 15. This coupled with displacements; general disruption of economic activity and lack of access to fields constrained the food acquisition strategies of IDPs. Davies said government last year contributed Shs 600 million to avert the crisis through the office of the prime minister to help communities that are not largely accessed by WFP and that it had pledged another 400 million for the first quarter of 2003. "Donors would like to see a greater contribution of government. This will go a long way to convince the donors that it is committed to this cause," Edward Kallon, the WFP deputy country director said. According to Davies, only money talks and it is the only way the food will get faster to those who need it most. "Uganda has a surplus of food but it is not free. We need cash to get it and that is where as WFP we come in. We have been going around the country buying from farmers and sometimes working with farmers associations. The only problem is that farmers associations are not very organised," he said. Currently WFP is the biggest buyer of locally grown food. While many people are all praying for the guns in northern Uganda to fall silent, the hunger that threatens to wipe out victims of Kony war may be worse than the war itself.        The Mulindwas communication group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"