Government delivers food relief to Karamoja

Minister Musa Ecweru launching the distribution of food in Karamoja sub-region. Photo by Godfrey Ojore

Government delivered 100 metric tonnes of food relief to the people of Karamoja following alarming cases of hunger that authorities said had claimed lives.

The items included maize flour and beans to be distributed to affected communities.

"This is not enough but it can help you prepare porridge to enable you get strength to prepare gardens since rains have started" said the State Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Musa Ecweru.

The Moroto district LC5 chairman, Andrew Napaja, told the minister that people living with HIV/AIDS were affected more by the situation and had abandoned taking drugs on empty stomachs leading to some deaths.

"The data I have gathered since October last year up to now indicates that we have lost 42 people from Nadunget and 38 from Rupa sub-counties" Napaja said.

The Moroto district health officer, Dr. Abubakar Lubega, said his office received information of people who were on ARVs that have abandoned taking their drugs due to lack of food.

"We have got no figures of HIV/AIDS patients that have died but what I can confirm to you is that ARVs are supposed to be taken when a patient has eaten food but due to famine, most people stopped taking their drugs" Lubega said.

The LC3 of Rupa sub-county Apollo Dan Majory, said that his people had cultivated crops but the long dry spell left them with nothing to harvest.

"My people are not lazy but the weather betrayed them living some starving to death. The situation is bad and we pray that rains return early to enable our people cultivate first maturing crops" Majory said.

His sub-county has a population of 25,189 people that were all affected, prompting the leadership to consider it as the place where food distribution was launched.

Ecweru apologized on behalf of government for the people that have died of hunger-related deaths in Karamoja.

"My coming here is to ensure that we shall not witness more people die of hunger in Karamoja, to the families that have lost their beloved ones, I must say it's unfortunate," Ecweru said.

The most affected are the elderly and the children according to the leaders in Karamoja region.

The drought has affected livestock keeping, forcing residents to travel to neighbouring Teso and Lango regions.

"The Turukana from Kenya have crossed into Karamoja with large herds of cattle in search of pasture and water. Currently the Kobebe valley dam is serving both Turukana and the Karamojong and if this drought continues Kobebe may also dry up" Napaja explained.