Uganda has launched emergency food relief distribution in the Karamoja region after at least 19 deaths from hunger were reported due to a prolonged drought. The region’s 1.5 million people are facing acute food shortages and rising malnutrition as crops have failed without the season’s expected rains. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) reported that the situation had deteriorated to a crisis across Karamoja, prompting the government to distribute 9,400 tonnes of relief food over the next two months.
The supplies were procured using a 45bn-shilling (£9m) emergency funding allocation, approved by parliament. Sam Engola, minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, launched the aid distribution efforts at a primary school in Lodiko sub-county in Kaabong district, stating that the president does not want to hear of anyone in Karamoja dying of hunger. Engola ensured that everyone receives food and no one will be left behind.
Karamoja is experiencing its most severe dry spell in years, with farmers losing crops since the last meaningful rainfall was recorded in April. Angelina Nakiru, a 21-year-old mother of two, said she was struggling to feed her children after all her crops failed and now works at a small-scale grinding mill to earn money to buy food for her children. Health facilities report treating hundreds of children for severe malnutrition, with nearly half of the population in Karamoja’s Kaabong and Kotido districts in a crisis situation.
Experts attribute the region’s recurring food insecurity and vulnerability to climate crisis shocks, environmental degradation, poverty, and low agricultural productivity. The government’s emergency food aid distribution is a response to the significant funding cuts from USAID and the World Food Programme (WFP), which have drastically scaled back their aid. The WFP has phased out food assistance for 63% of the refugee population, cutting off more than 1 million people from aid, and reducing rations to just 663,000 recipients.
This shift has led to the government taking the lead on distribution as a necessity, as much as a policy choice. The government said it remained committed to implementing long-term remedial measures with the recently approved Karamoja regional development plan, which is intended to strengthen communities’ resilience to drought. The plan includes providing drought-resistant, disease-resistant, and early-maturing seeds ahead of the next planting season.
In 2022, a devastating hunger crisis claimed more than 2,200 lives, according to figures from Uganda’s human rights commission body. The emergency food aid distribution is expected to provide short-term relief, but experts emphasize that addressing the root causes of food insecurity through structural reforms is necessary to break the cycle of hunger. The Food Rights Alliance (FRA) wants access to food to be made a fundamental human right and the government to turn its attention to water infrastructure and climate resilience.
Agnes Kirabo, executive director of the FRA, said that the government’s leadership in this emergency is welcome, but it must be matched by the political will to implement the systemic changes required to permanently protect the people of Karamoja and Uganda from predictable, preventable hunger.
