North calls for food aid â€" WFP

Jul 31, 2003

NAIROBI, Wednesday – 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

NAIROBI, Wednesday – 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 caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA) in the north, not all of whom were accessible by humanitarian workers, said Melo.

Currently WFP is unable to reach about 150,000 displaced people around Katakwi in eastern Uganda, she said.

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, killings and looting have also severely hampered people’s ability to produce or buy food, WFP said.

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