Karamoja grappling with acute famine

BY JACKSON ONYANGO

& ELIZABETH KAMURUNGI

A new report has shown that four in every 10 Karamojong have no food to eat, only two in ten have stocks enough to last a month while three percent will be able to feed themselves for the next 90 days.

In a brief to Parliament yesterday about the worsening famine situation in Karamoja sub-region, State Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Ms Esther Anyakun, said “517,000 representing 41 per cent of the population have been at risk of food shortage between March and July 2022.

80 percent will last a month. Only 3 per cent have stocks to last 3 months or more.”

The most affected districts are Kotido where over 1O7,0OO are estimated to be starving, Napak (81,000), Kaabong (70,600), and Moroto (61,000).

Leaders in the region have described the situation as an emergency, and asked bureaucrats to waive procurement bureaucracies and get food to residents clinging on to a string of life.

In the remote Iriri Sub-county in Napak district, our reporter yesterday found sixty-year-old Maritina Maruk lying motionless on a mat behind a grass-thatched house. As of yesterday, she said she had spent two days without a meal.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna